Catherine the Great

Empress of Russia

Catherine II (the Great) was Russian Empress from 1762 until 1796. She was born a German princess and christened Sophia Friederika Augusta von Anhalt-Zerbst. A child of the Enlightenment, she corresponded with such leading figures of the age as Voltaire and Diderot and promoted educational, judicial, economic, and scientific advancements (Hans, pp.229-235).

Catherine had a role in the American Revolutionary War primarily as the founder and leader of the League of Armed Neutrality of 1780. The League of Armed Neutrality, which advocated the idea of free ships, free goods, evolved into essentially an alignment of most European maritime states against Great Britain because of Britain's continued insistence on the right to search neutral ships for contraband destined for the rebellious colonists in America. In spite of the adversarial relationship between the League and Great Britain, the states of the League did not want to bring Great Britain down from its great power status. The prospects of a reestablished French power, a la Louis XIV, were even less desirable than British dominance. Since the various states voluntarily supported the League out of self-interest, much leeway was accepted by the members in the execution of its policies (Hans, pp.229-235).

Even though Catherine was the leader of the League of Armed Neutrality, she was basically sympathetic with the British. Indeed, British ships carried great amounts of Russian goods. The problem was simply that Catherine could not tolerate the subordination of Russia's rights to the rights of any other power, even though Britain often paid for the goods that her navy confiscated or damaged. Nor was Britain the only power to raise the ire of the Russian Empress by seizing property; the American rebels and the Spanish were guilty of intercepting Russian shipments as well. American privateers confiscated Russian goods from Archangel on board British ships in 1778. In response to this situation, Catherine considered joint action with Denmark to protect trade in the northern shipping corridors. The Danes answered her with a proposed joint declaration that same year. The joint declaration was not adopted, but the wording proved to be useful to Catherine at a later date (Henri, pp. 427).

The American seizures were annoying, but the most compelling reason for the Russian proclamation came in early 1780, when Spain (an enemy of the British) seized some Russian goods aboard a neutral vessel and then a Russian vessel carrying Russian goods. In both cases, the cargo was Russian corn bound for Mediterranean ports. Catherine and her ministers did not consider the earlier seizures to be as serious as those conducted by the Spanish.

The Russian view was based on interpretations of the law, the limited number of earlier interceptions, the otherwise good commercial relations between Great Britain and Russia, and the fact that Denmark (another neutral Baltic maritime power) was also experiencing Spanish harassment at sea. Of perhaps equal importance was the basic Spanish attitude of enemy ships, enemy goods. Catherine saw this attitude as belligerent, since even harmless neutral goods were ...