Copenhagen 1801: a conflict without simple villains

Denmark-Norway had reasons to protect its neutrality, while Britain feared that a hostile coalition might gain control of Baltic naval power. The civilian cost of fighting inside a port makes the episode grim, but the strategic problem did not disappear because the battle was morally troubling. A harbour engagement also turned the fleets' guns into a massive artillery duel amid a populated port instead of an isolated fight at sea. Copenhagen therefore raises the wider question of how states make preventive choices under pressure.