While the years offer Napoleon's defeat in 1815 are often glossed over as peaceful and uneventful, for Lord Bathurst, Britain's Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, they were ones of frenzied activity that did much to create the world balance of power we know today. While British armies took formal control of South Africa and increasing portions of India, Bathurst's shadow army of operatives seemed to have a finger in every pie worldwide.