Caribbean Campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars

The Caribbean was a major theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars because plantation colonies produced valuable sugar and provided strategic naval bases. British forces attacked French islands while disease often killed more soldiers and sailors than combat.

Operations depended on frigates, cutters, transports and local knowledge as much as on major fleets. Revolution and slavery also shaped loyalties within the islands, making military occupation unstable.

Seaflower moves Kydd and Renzi from a court-martial in Britain to Antigua and Guadeloupe. The novel uses small-ship action and colonial service to show a different naval war from the battle fleet.