Why Britain Burned Neutral Copenhagen

In 1807, Great Britain launched a devastating pre-emptive strike against neutral Denmark-Norway to prevent its naval fleet from being seized by Napoleon's expanding French Empire.The British military besieged Copenhagen, utilizing terrifying new Congreve rockets and heavy artillery in an indiscriminate bombardment that killed hundreds of civilians and left much of the capital in ashes.Upon Denmark's surrender, the British confiscated their entire navy, which pushed the neutral twin realms into a formal alliance with France and triggered the years-long maritime conflict known as the Gunboat War.