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Canning, George

Canning, George, 1770-1827, British statesman. Canning was converted to Toryism by the French Revolution, became a disciple of William Pitt, and was his undersecretary for foreign affairs (1796-99). To bring ridicule upon English radicals and Whigs who favored the Revolution, he contributed numerous articles to the Anti-Jacobin (1797-98). During the war against Napoleon I, he served as treasurer of the navy (1804-6) and was foreign minister (1807-9). He exerted great influence in military affairs, planning the seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen (1807) and supporting British intervention in Spain and Portugal (see Peninsular War). However, he quarreled with Lord Castlereagh, and after a duel, in which Canning was wounded, both resigned from the ministry. He later served (1816-20) as president of the board of control for India, resigning in protest against the government's prosecution of Queen Caroline. Recalled to the foreign office after Castlereagh's suicide (1822), he reversed previous policy toward the Holy Alliance, refusing to cooperate in the suppression of European revolutions. He protested the decisions of the Congress of Verona (1822) and, although unable to prevent French intervention in Spain, later sent an army to Portugal to foil absolutist intervention there. His policies toward the Spanish colonies in America, whose independence he recognized, led to the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine. He arranged the French-Russian-British agreement, which, after his death, resulted in Greek independence. After the resignation of Lord Liverpool, Canning became (Apr., 1827) prime minister, but he died four months later.

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REFERENCES

  • Aspinall, A, “The Coalition Ministries of 1827: I, Canning's Ministry”, English Historical Review, 42 (1927): 201-26.
  • Crawley, C W., The Question of Greek Independence: A Study of British Foreign Policy in the Near East, 1821-1833, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930; reprinted, New York: Fertig, 1973.
  • Dixon, Peter, Canning, Politician and Statesman, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976; as George Canning, Politician and Statesman, New York: Mason/Charter, 1976.
  • Hinde, Wendy, George Canning, London: Collins, 1973; New York: St Martin's Press, 1974.
  • Nicolson, Harold, The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812-1822, London: Constable, and New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946.
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From Credo

  • Perkins, Dexter, Hands Off: A History of the Monroe Doctrine, Boston: Little Brown, 1941; revised edition, as A History of the Monroe Doctrine, Boston, Massachusetts: Little Brown, 1955; London: Longmans, Green, 1960.
  • Rolo, P J.V., George Canning: Three Biographical Studies, London: Macmillan, 1965.
  • St Clair, William, That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence, London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
  • Temperley, Harold, Life of Canning, London: Finch, 1905; Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1970.
  • Temperley, Harold, The Foreign Policy of Canning, 1822-1827: England, the Neo-Holy Alliance and the New World, London: Bell, 1925; reprinted, with new introduction by Herbert Butterfield, London: Cass, and Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1966.
  • Webster, Charles K., Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812-1830, originally published as the introduction to Webster's Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812-1830: Select Documents from the Foreign Office Archives, 2 vols, 1938; London: Oxford University Press, 1944.