After Napoleon: Why France, Not Britain, Was the Biggest Military Spender of the 19th Century

When the great powers met in Vienna in 1815 to redraw the map of Europe, they hoped to make another Napoleon impossible. In one sense they succeeded: for almost forty years Britain, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia did not fight each other. But peace did not mean disarmament. Each kept an army large enough to worry its neighbours, and the money they spent on it tells a story that the textbooks usually skip.

The surprise is who spent the most. Britain had the biggest navy and the biggest empire, and in 1816 it also had the biggest military budget, about $2.2 billion in today’s money. Within six years it had lost that place to France, which went on to hold #1 for 36 of the 55 years to 1870.

Britain stands down

Britain came out of the Napoleonic Wars with enormous debts and a public that wanted lower taxes. It cut its army quickly and relied on the Royal Navy, which was expensive to build but needed relatively few men. British military spending fell from $2.2 billion in 1816 to about $1.5 billion by 1819 and stayed close to that level for the next two decades.

France moved the other way. Allied occupation troops left French soil in 1818, and the restored monarchy rebuilt its army. In 1823 it sent an army across the Pyrenees to put the Spanish king back on his throne, and French spending that year jumped to $2.2 billion, overtaking Britain. The two traded places for a few years; from 1828, France stayed ahead.

The French half-century

Two things kept the French budget high. The first was the army itself: France raised soldiers by conscription and kept a standing force far larger than Britain’s. The second was Algeria. The conquest that began in 1830 turned into a long, expensive colonial war, and French spending rose from $1.9 billion in 1830 to $2.5 billion in 1831.

Diplomatic crises show up too. In 1840 France backed the ruler of Egypt against the Ottoman Sultan and found itself isolated against Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia. War talk filled Paris for months. It never came to fighting, but the bill did: French spending climbed from $1.8 billion in 1839 to $3.1 billion in 1842 and stayed there. Throughout the 1840s France spent roughly half as much again as Russia and nearly twice as much as Britain.

The chart above uses a logarithmic scale, where each gridline is ten times the one below. It is the only way to fit both stories on one picture: the slow climb of the European budgets, and the American line, which sits below a billion dollars for decades and then shoots straight up.

Russia’s three years, and the Crimean War

Russia had the largest army in Europe, but its soldiers were cheap: serfs conscripted for very long terms of service and paid very little. In money terms, that kept Russia mostly in second or third place. It reached #1 only three times, in 1850, 1853 and 1856, each time as tension with the Ottoman Empire and the Western powers rose.

The Crimean War (1853–1856) is the first time in this race that the great powers fought each other. Britain, which had spent less than $2 billion a year for decades, spent $11.3 billion in 1854, more than double anyone else, as it shipped an army to the Black Sea. In 1855 the three main belligerents were almost level.

An American interruption

The United States spent very little on its military before 1861, usually a billion dollars a year or less in today’s money. The war with Mexico in 1846 pushed it to $1.5 billion, enough to put it in the top four for the first time. Nothing suggested what was coming.

When the Civil War began, the Union had to build a mass army almost from nothing. Its military spending went from $1.2 billion in 1860 to $15.2 billion in 1861, $22.2 billion in 1862, and $26.7 billion in 1864, six times France’s budget that year. No European power had ever spent on that scale. The figure counts only the Union; the Confederacy’s spending is not in the dataset. When the war ended in 1865, the army was sent home almost at once, and by 1866 the United States had dropped out of the top four. (It returned to #1 for a single year in 1867, at $4.6 billion, narrowly ahead of France.)

Prussia does more with less

The last years of the period belong to Prussia, and they are a lesson in how little a budget can tell you on its own. In 1859 France fought Austria in northern Italy and spent $5.4 billion, its highest figure since the Crimean War. In 1866, when Prussia defeated Austria in just seven weeks, the biggest spenders that year were France, Austria and Italy; Prussia was not even in the top four.

In 1870 the ranking finally showed Prussia at #2, with $6.8 billion, behind France’s $9.4 billion. France declared war that July. Within weeks its main army was surrounded at Sedan, and Napoleon III was taken prisoner. In January 1871 the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles, and the next era of the race began.

The period in numbers

• Years at #1: France 36, the United Kingdom 10, the United States 6, the Russian Empire 3.
• Changes at the top: 15.
• Total spending, 1816–1870: France $162 billion, the United Kingdom $133 billion, the United States $128 billion, the Russian Empire $127 billion, Austria $71 billion.
• Biggest single year: the United States, $26.7 billion in 1864.

Questions readers ask

Which country had the biggest military budget in the 19th century?

For most of 1816–1870 it was France, at #1 in 36 of the 55 years and about $162 billion in total (2024 dollars), ahead of Britain’s $133 billion. Britain had the bigger navy, but France kept a far larger conscript army.

How much did the Union spend on the American Civil War?

Union military spending rose from about $1 billion in 1860 to $26.7 billion in 1864, in 2024 dollars, six times France’s budget that year. The Confederacy’s spending is not included.

Did France or Prussia spend more on the Franco-Prussian War?

France. In 1870 it spent $9.4 billion against Prussia’s $6.8 billion, and lost the war within months.

About the numbers

Figures are military expenditure from the Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset (v7), converted to constant 2024 US dollars. Amounts recorded in pounds are adjusted with British prices. All figures for this period are estimates; Ottoman figures start only in 1851, and the US Civil War counts the Union only.

More from the series

• The full story, 1816–2025
• Next: the race to 1914, 1871–1913
• Two world wars, 1910–1945
• The Cold War, 1946–1991
• After the Cold War, 1992–2025