Is there any way, for between 1750-1900, to have British held territory on Continental Europe? Or is that impossible.
British Territories in Continental Europe
- Thread starter SadSprinter
- Start date
That isn't British though. That's just another state that happens to share a monarch with Britain.
The problem isn't could it happen, but why would Britain want it to happen. A continental possession runs the risk of being occupied during the next big war.
I think you'd need to give the place some great strategic advantage, like Gibraltar (which fulfils the OP's requirements, although it's so small it's usually forgotten about in these sorts of discussions).
Maybe the area around OTL's north-eastern France/Belgium? Britain was quite paranoid about hostile foreign powers getting control of the Channel ports, and the UK might decide that the best way to prevent this was to control the ports itself.
At the risk of repeating myself, this runs the risk of being occupied during the next big war. The British government were really annoyed at having Hannover to deal with. Having directly-controlled land is even more problematic.
Yes, but then again this was a risk anyway. At least if Britain owns that land, it can make sure that it's properly defended, that the area's owners don't decide to gang up against Britain, etc.
I thought of the Frisian territories (East Frisia, Friesland Proper/Leeuwarden, Groningen and Drenthe), but the PoD behind it is too early for the OP's criteria
England controlled Calais for quite a while, maybe they regain it., as @Riain suggested.
There is no incentiztion for a British to desire / covet and maintained a colony on continental Europe. Great Britain's far flung colonial empire was to feed the mercantile and then industrial beast of the home islands with resouces The means to maintain this was through the projected power and strength of the Royal Navy and the large size of the merchant fleet. There are always exceptions, but the British colonies were rarely in direct competition with another major European power. Likewise, the resupply stations; first water and food and then coal were strategic for both resupply and control of trade routes; i.e. Gibralta and to a lesser extent; Malta in the Med. Similar examples span the globe.
we could possibly have kept the Ionian isles and still have 99 square miles of Cyprus, but neither are on continental europe
An Act of Union similar to those with Scotland and Ireland would deal with this easily enough.
This. The issue isn't "could Britain do this?" but "why would Britain do this?" Any potential territory would need to be small, easily defensible against big odds and capable of being fully supplied from the sea. Gibraltar is the obvious example that fits all these criteria and was indeed taken and held.