Can anybody give me a link for the French Navy in 1700? Strength, tactics, commanders etc. All other European and Ottomanian navies of this time are interesting, too!!
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Can anybody give me a link for the French Navy in 1700? Strength, tactics, commanders etc. All other European and Ottomanian navies of this time are interesting, too!!
I don't have any special links but at this time the French Navy was in another period of decline. When the minister Colbert died Louis XIV once again forgot about maintaining the navy. This wiki entry might prove to be useful to you though http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ships_of_the_line
For example in Voltaire's The Age of Louis XIV it shows that in 1672 France had only 60 ships of the line in its Navy but by 1681 it had expanded to 198 ships of the line. Formidable but not capable of standing up to the combined Dutch and English fleets.
The last major sea battle for the French just before 1700 was the battle of La Hogue (1692) when Louis XIV had his admiral (Tourville) engage a fleet twice his own strength. After this the French spent a good deal of time just conducting interdiction warfare against the British with limited success.
Try this link: xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/fleets.htm.
It will give you some other links.