In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European countries such as Spain, France, the Netherlands and Britain armed their merchant ships to prevent capture by pirates, enemy commerce raiders and privateers when they conducted overseas trade. The most heavily armed were ships carrying valuable cargo back from the Far East. For example, the East Indiamen class of ships were constructed from the ground up with defence in mind, with their heavy armament making them equivalent to naval ships of the line. Once the threat passed after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, armed merchant ships like East Indiamen were replaced with faster and lighter unarmed ships such as clippers.