<P> In this era, the Royal Navy provided services around the world that benefited other nations, such as the suppression of piracy and blocking the slave trade . The Slave Trade Act 1807 had banned the trade across the British Empire, after which the Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron and the government negotiated international treaties under which they could enforce the ban . Sea power, however, did not project on land . Land wars fought between the major powers include the Crimean War, the Franco - Austrian War, the Austro - Prussian War and the Franco - Prussian War, as well as numerous conflicts between lesser powers . The Royal Navy prosecuted the First Opium War (1839--1842) and Second Opium War (1856--1860) against Imperial China . The Royal Navy was superior to any other two navies in the world, combined . Between 1815 and the passage of the German naval laws of 1890 and 1898, only France was a potential naval threat . </P> <P> Britain traded goods and capital extensively with countries around the world, adopting a free trade policy after 1840 . The growth of British imperial strength was further underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph, new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the empire . By 1902, the British Empire was linked together by a network of telegraph cables, the so - called All Red Line . </P> <P> The Pax Britannica was weakened by the breakdown of the continental order which had been established by the Congress of Vienna . Relations between the Great Powers of Europe were strained to breaking point by issues such as the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which led to the Crimean War, and later the emergence of new nation states in the form of Italy and Germany after the Franco - Prussian War . Both of these wars involved Europe's largest states and armies . The industrialisation of Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the United States contributed to the relative decline of British industrial supremacy in the early 20th century . </P>

Period of great peace definition ap world history