HISTORY 386. SECTION A.
THE MILITARY AND WAR IN AMERICA.
Lecture 3: Colonial Wars: The American Revolution.
- I. Overseas Empires.
- A) The Iberian Period, 1500-1600.
- 1. The Portugese in Africa and the Indies.
- a) Circumnavigation of Africa.
- b) Taking over the Spice Trade.
- i) Arab traders.
- ii) Ottoman Empire.
- iii) Setting up fortress/trading posts (Angola, Mozambique, Hormuz,
Goa, Malacca, Macao).
- iv) costly transhipment.
- 2. The Spanish in the New World.
- a) Discoveries.
- b) Conquest of Aztecs and Incas.
- c) Booty and exploitation of mines.
- d) Subjugation and conversion of natives.
- 3. Decline of the Iberian Overseas Empires.
- a) Too much, too soon. Gold and Silver made for less trade.
- b) Inflation rate high.
- c) Cost of maintaining government overseas (army, etc).
- d) Little commercial activity--Dutch became middlemen.
- e) Involvement in wars in Europe.
- f) Rivalry of Northwestern Europe (Holland, France and England).
- i) Exploration (English and French in N.A.; Holland in Indies).
- ii) Piracy and Privateering.
- iii) Breaking Trade Monopolies.
- g) Factors in Rise of N.W. Europe Overseas.
- i) Sound Economic foundations.
- ii) Development of Banking Trade and Industry.
- iii) Joint Stock Companies.
- B) Holland as an Overseas Power, 1600-1700.
- 1. Geographic Strengths.
- 2. Economic strenghths.
- a) Commercial classes.
- b) Middlemen for Spain and Portugal.
- c) Merchant fleet.
- d) Revolt. War with Spain and Portugal.
- 3. Break the Portugese Monopoly, 1600-1650.
- a) The Route to the Indies.
- b) Effective Organization of the East India Company.
- c) Territorial acquisitions.
- d) New Spices (Coffee=Java)
- e) English did the Same with Tea (Boiling Water Healthy).
- 4. Other Activities.
- a) West Indies.
- b) Guinea.
- c) Baltic Trade.
- d) Russian Trade.
- e) New Amsterdam. Undercut others.
- f) Cape Colony. Good Hope.
- 5. Decline of Holland 1650-1700.
- a) English rivalry. Joint stock companies, colonies.
- b) Navigation acts of 1651.
- c) Land wars with France. Not an Island.
- d) Sea Wars with England.
- e) Lack of manpower and resources, army and navy to compete
with England and France.
- C) Anglo-French Overseas Empires.
- 1. New World and Old World Colonies.
- a) British Colonies (Atlantic Seaboard, New England, Virginia,
New York, West Indies) .
- b) French Colonies (Canada, Indies and India).
- 2. Differences in Colonies.
- a) Density of population.
- b) British sent dissenters, more emigration.
- c) British colonies disorganized, companmies, legislatueres
vs. governors. Impact of Civil War isolates them.
- d) France did not have that problem.
- e) French colonies better organized militarily, but not as well
populated. 20,000 in Canada vs. 300,000 in English colonies.
- 3. Overseas rivalries.
- a) Wars on the continent were mirrored in colonies and trade.
- b) Wars of a much more irregular nature.
- Privateers and Pirates.
- Private armies of Joint stock companies.
- Mercenaties and adventurers.
- Native armed forces.
- Armed forces of European Settlers.
- II. The Military of the American Colonies.
- A) The Major Intercolonial Wars.
- 1. King William's War (1689-1697) a.k.a. War of the League of
Augsburg.
- a) The Anglo-French struggle overseas was inconclusive.
- i) In North America, French forces were allied to the Indians of Canada
and Maine, while the British had coolonists and Iroquois to support them.
- ii) The French and Indians massacred colonists at Schenectady, Salmon
Falls and Casco Bay in 1690.
- iii) The British captured Port Royal in the same year.]iv) A Massachushetts
expediton against quebec ended in failure.
- b) The Treaty of Ryswick restored the status quo ante
bellum.
- i) In the West Indies, buccaneer and privateer activity increased,
the only territoial change was that the western part of the island of Espanola,
in which French buccanneers had secured a foothold and colonization had
already begun, was ceded to France by Spain at the end of the war. France's
part of the Island became Haiti, Spain's part of the Island became the
Santo Domingo.
- ii) Treaty restored the status quo ante bellum in Europe.
All territorial acquisitions from 1679 to 1688 were recognized. France
also recognized William and Mary as sovereigns of England and Anne as their
successor.
- 2. Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) a.k.a. War of the Spanish Succession.
- a) The Struggle 0verseas. Just as France's fortunes began to
wane in Europe during the war, so too did France's overseas interests.
The War was also fought overseas chiefly by Britain, which gained from
both France and Spain.
- i) In North America, Spanish possessions in Florida were attacked by
combined forces of British colonists from Carolina and Indians in 1702,
while the connecticut valley in New England was raided by the French and
northern Indians in 1704. However in 1710 and 1711, British regular
forces, supplemented by colonials, took the offensive in the north, capturing
Acadia , and renaming it Nova Scotia . An expedition was mounted to attack
Montreal and Quebec, but was called off after a British flotilla was malled
in the St. Lawrence.
- ii) In the West Indies. Unofficial naval warfare was conducted by Buccaneers
aginst Spanish and french shipping and trade. While no territory was captured,
commercial concessions were extracted from Spain.
- b) The War of the Spanish Succession was concluded by the Treaty
of Utrecht in 1713, in which Great Britain did not receive territories
in Europe, instead Great Britain received:
- i) Recognition of the Protestant succession.
- ii) confirmation of the seperation of the Spanish and French crowns.
- iii) Gibraltar and Minorca in the Mediterranean from Spain, the former
of crucial strategic importance.
- iv) the Asiento, or the exclusive contract or concession
of supplying slaves and conducting the slave trade in Spanish America for
thirty years. This opened up the Spanish New World to English traders
- v) Newfoundland, Acadia, and Hudson Bay Territory from France.
- 3. War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1742). Fought over the treatment
of British merchantmen by Spaniards. Led to an unsuccesful expedition of
British led Virginian, Carolinian and Georgian Militia against the Spanish
stronghold of St. Augustine in Florida. The War did not end with any significant
territorian changes.
- 4. King George's War (1740-1748) a.k.a. War of the Austrian
Succession. Fought over dynastic dispute in Europe; the chief opponents
Austria and Prussia, but Frnace and britain also fought one another in
the North America. The French attempted an invasion of Nova Scotia from
Quebec which failed. Volunteers and milita from Massachusettes, New Hampshire
and Conneecticut, aid by British warships, captured the French fortress
of Louisburg. A subsquent attempt by the northern colonial forces to conquer
French Canada failed and the French and Indian allies attacked the frontier
as far South as New York. The severity of these attacks were lessened by
the exploitations of divisions among the Indian tribes. The peace made
in Europe was only a truce in America. Intermiittant Indian-Settler conflicts
fomented by the French continued in the Ohio valley, Nova Scotia and Cherokee
country.
- 5. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) a.k.a. the Seven Years
War. Began in America as an undeclared and expanded into a formal European
conflict. The war saw extensive use of both English regulars and American
militia. The campaigns in the Ohio valley and New York were unsuccessful
or inconclusive. There was also friction between the colonial governments
and militas and British command over the conduct of the War. British successes
in Canada, and events in the continent forced the French to abandon Canada
and all claims east of the Mississippi the British, and the Louisiana territory
to Spain.
- B) The Colonial Military Experience.
- 1. warfare as a constant, "normal", state of affairs.
Life on the frontiers and the struggle with the native americans.
- 2. European settlers vs. native american indigenous populations:
- a) Moral considerations and the "law" of conquest.
- b) European vs. Native American rules of warfare--the conflict
of sociologies of war.
- 3. Colonial militias vs. fortified European positions, e.g.
the New England attack on Louisburg in 1745.
- 4. Colonial milita in cooperation with British regular troops
e.g. the French and Indian Wars (marches, sieges, assaults).
- 5. The character of the militia:
- a) Under civilian control; subject to the oprders of a local
assembly.
- b) Except in Pennsylvania, there was universal (male) military
obligation.
- c) Officers were elected and decisions were made by councils
of war.
- d) commanders in the field were often political appointments.
- e) little formal training; artillery and cavalry the exceptions--usually
elite units.
- f) the problem of discipline; the controversy over the comparative
effectiveness of regulars vs. militia begins in the colonial period. Discipline
was lax in camps and on route marches; discipline was first rate when the
militia was fighting in defense of its own territory as at Concord, Lexington,
and the siege of Boston.
- 5. each colony was in reality a self-governing commonwealth.
There was little sense of unity and therefor no "national" army.
This is reflected in the problem of trading with the "technical"
enemy during times of warfare. As a rule of thumb, the closer the war was
to your borders, the greater was your immediate interest in the problems
of intercolonial defense.
- 6. Americans did not come to the new world to become soldiers.
Those Americans who came from England, particulary after 1660, brought
a tradition of civilian fear of a military dictatorship (Cromwell); those
form other parts of Europe brought the tradtional European contempt for
the profession of arms. Hence Americans came to war with little enthusiasm
and returned as soon as possible to their normal civilian pursuits. This
is one of the basic ingrediants in the "American Way of War".
- III. The Military Origins of the American Revolution.
- I will not go into basic causes mentioned in most general courses
in American history. But instead want to discuss three basic causes related
to military affairs.
- A) The End of the French Threat.
- One factor in the move toward american independence was that the
withdrawal of the French after the French and Indian War freed the colonists
from fear of foreign agression and the need for protection from the British
Empire.
- B) The Experience of the French and Indian War.
- Many colonial officers and militiamen received military experience
in the French and Indian War.
- C) The Question of the Frontier.
- Following the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the British
government made a procalamation which forbad the settlement of territory
west of the Alleghenies in order to prevent outbreaks of strife between
indians and settlers. The said territory came theoretically under the control
of the British military commander in America and existing settlements were
to be dimantled and the settlers returned east. This led to numerous conflicts
between English, settlers, and indians.
- D) The Fiscal problem of the War and the Military in America.
- The financial cost of the French and Indian War, together with the
new economic burdens of garrisoning the newly annexed territories territory
led the British to attempt to tax the American colonist to pay what the
British beleived was their fair share of the cost of the war and the military
in America. This struggle over taxes, the frontier, and the garrisoning
of British troops were basic factors which contributed to the American
Revolution
- IV. The American Strategy and Conduct of the War.
- I will not go into the specific campaigns or events, instead we
will look into the basic elements of the American struggle and why it was
successful. We will also look at the problems confronting the British and
why they lost the War.
- A) The Organization of Armed Resistance.
- When armed conflict broke out between the British garrison and the
Massachusettes militia over the attempted seizure of the colony's military
stores at Lexington and Concord, there was no American strategy for successfully
ending the conflict. After the abortive attempt to spread the Revolution
to Canada by Invasion, the successful ousting of the British from Boston,
and the loss of New York, George Washington, commander of the Continental
Army realized that the only way of winning the armed struggle of the Revolution
was to preserve his army and inflict as much damage as possible upon the
numerically superior and better disciplined British forces. Washington
attpted to maintain and organize a core revolutionary army, Continental
Army, under his command which would be the main quarry for the British.
While other forces in the south and the north, mostly consisting of militias,
would conduct operations to prevent the British from consolidating their
hold in any given area.
- B) The American Revolution as a Civil War.
- The war was not only a struggle between the colonist and the British,
but also between colonists. The war itself was not limited in its objectives
for the Americans after the declaration of Independence. It was a struggle
for independence without compromise. Those who disagreed were persecuted.
THe British failed in trying to rally a sufficient number of colonists
to actively support the crown. While large numbers of colonists tacitly
supported the crown, they had neither the zeal nor the elan to fight for
the crown. The war policies of the British alienated some and forced other
to straddle the fence even more
- C) Washington and the Strategy of the Continental Army.
- Washington and the Continental Army found itself on the defensive,
suffering setbacks and defeats, but never surrendering. Inflicting damage
upon the enemy by attacking British detatchments and outposts, such as
the Christmas raid against Trenton in 1777. Washington thus pursued what
may be called a strategy of attrition, in which the Americans would erode
the British by gradual, persistant action against the fringes of their
forces. Foremost was the policy of forming and maintaining a regularstyle
army under his command, which became inportant in legitimizing the armed
struggle in the eyes of the world. To his credit Washington was able to
maintain the strength and integrity of the continental army against all
odds until the international situation changed in favor of the revolution
with the entry of France, Spain and Holland into the war, and the formation
of the League of Armed Neutrality.
- D) Partisan Warfare.
- During the Revolution other, less regular American forces were organized
from militias to harass, slowdown or prevent British military occupations
and movements. To this end they used irregular methods of mustering and
fightng, which confounded British commanders. In some areas, such as the
Carolinas, the war took on the form of a guerilla war in which small units
of American rebels fought both British and loyalist forces in hit and run
campaigns in which the then norms of warfare were not followed; quarter
was not given or expected. In some cases these irregular forces could coalesce
into armies and defeat Regular British forces, as at Albany in 1777. They
could inflict defeats upon the British as at Cowpens, which we will cover
on Thursday.
- E) The Phases of the War of Independence.
- 1. Phase One--Initial Successes and Failures.
- a) Bunker Hill and Breed Hill, although taken by the British
in June 1775, the rebel inflicted so many casualities on the british that
they were encouraged to continue the struggle..
- b) American attempt to capture Montreal fails, Colonial forced
defeated by forces under Gen. Burgoyne.
- c) American forces under Washington drive the British under
Howe from Boston . Theose British forces withdraw to Halifax .
- d) Howe's forces return to the rebel colonies land near New
York and drive American forces from New York . Did not pursue Washingtons
army. This failure to follow through a mistake.
- 2. Phase Two--Struggle for Survival, 1776-1778.
- a) By late 1776 the British were in a strong position. From
New York, Howe controlled the major sea approach to the colonies; General
Burgoyne was plaaning to lead a campaign south from Canada along the Lake
Champlain and Hudson river valleys. Howe was to march up north from New
York, link up with Burgoyne and split the colonies in half, Isolating the
more rebelious New England colonies from the others; hopefully dividing
and conquering them and ending the war.
- b) There was a lack of unity on the part of the British command.
The campaign was not coordinated. Howe did not wait for Burgoyne to march,
instead he went after Washington, and inflicted a defeat on the continental
Army at Brandywine--Washington forces escaped and wintered at Valley Forge.
He then marched on to Philadelphia.
- c) Bourgoyne's forces marched Southward experiencing resistance
by militia forces, which wore down his command to such an extent that he
was deferated by a quicklyraised milita army under Gates and was forced
to surrender.
- d) In many ways the battles of Brandywine and Saratoga were
turning points in the war. Washington's Continental army survived the defeat
and the winter at Valley Forge, and the British attempt to divide the former
colonies failed at Saratoga.
- 3. Phase Three--
- a) Because the Americans were able to hold on, the international
sistuation began to change for them. The French, who were eager to recoup
their losses from the French and Indian Wars, recognized the United States
and declared war on Britain in early 1778, followed by Spain in 1779. In
1780, Holland, which had been supplying arms to the Americans, was forced
into the War. Other naval powers, Denmark, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden,
form the League of Armed Neutrality to resist British claims to search
Neutral ships going to and from America. Thus the British were Becoming
diplomatically and militarily isolated.
- b) American ranger forces under George Rogers Clark were able
to wrest control of territory west of the Appalachians with the capture
of several British outposts.
- c) After failing to win in the North, the British turned their
attention to the south, which had smaller rebel forces, and a perceived
loyalist element. The British campaigns in the south, initially successful
evolved into a quagmire of partisan warfare.
- d) The main British forces in the south, under General Cornwallis
began to concentrate in Virginia. Meeting with resistance in N. Carolina
and Virginia, and having supply and reenforcement problems, encamped at
Yorktown to await reinforcement.
- e) Instead he was surrounded by Washington's Continental Army
and blockaded by the French Navy. The surrender of Cornwallis' army led
to the end ofthe war.
- V. Some basic problems for the British.
- A) Divisions over the Conduct of the War.
- 1. Differences among British political leaders over the justice
of the war whic in fact was a "Civil war' within the British Empire.
The War in America was part of a larger struggle between opposing political
forces in 18th century Britain ("hawks" vs. "Doves").
- 2. This is reflected in the attitude of the Howe Brothers (General
Sir William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe) who were both "doves"
on the issue of the American claims and who regarded their instructions
as peace commissioners to be as important as their military orders
- 3. Despite this division of opinion, the British Peace Terms
fell far short of the American demand for independence. The time for compromise
had passed. The Demands of the Americans were unacceptable to both the
King, his government and a majority of Parliament. The war was political
inall its aspects.
- B) Divisions over the Strategy of the War.
- 1. The British sought a quick victory as a prelude to an honorable
peace.
- 2. The Americans fought an extended war and obtained or imposed
upon the British a temporary defeat as a prelude to an honorable peace--nothing
else explains the significance of the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown
in 1781.
- 3. For the British there were few combinations of military moves
that could bring the war to an end on British terms:
- a) The holding or seizure of coastal cities (Boston in 1775-1776;
New York in 1776; Philadelphia in 1777; Charleston in 1780) to use as a
base from which to launch "search and destroy" missions was not
fatal to the American cause.
- b) The campaigns against Washington's Continental Army, while
inflicting defeats did not succeed in destroying it. It remained the main
center of American armed resistance.
- c) The countryside was never really pacified--control of territory
switched hands according to the fortunes of war. This was particularly
true in the Carolinas, where partisan warfare predominated.
- d) While the British devised endless plans for the conquest
of the colonies, they failed to come up with an effective strategy for
that aim. The closest they came to it was in the Hudson-Champlain campaign
in 1777, which turned into a disaster. This raises the question if there
can a military strategy win a political war.
- C) Logistical Problems.
- 1. The British suffered froma chronic lack of manpower.
- a) Attempts to recruit supporters among the colonists was mostly
a failure (tory levies were of dubius value).
- b) They were forced to press gangs top man their ships.
- c) They were forced to hire German mercenaires to fill out their
line of Battle (the use of these troops brought many into opposition to
the crown).
- d) It was more difficult for the British to secure replacements
than the Americans. Although Washingtons army lost mote men than British
forces, at Brandywine, for example. It was much more difficult for the
British to replace their losses, than it was for the Americans.
- 2. The American coastline was to long for the British to impse
an effective blockade. Indeed, the expenditures for the Royal navy were
cut during the war.
- D) The British View of Why They Lost.
- 1. Inefficient Leadership. The British war and naval ministers
were inefficient. They did not appreciate the nature of colonial war, so
that too few troops were sent at the outset. Early successes encouraged
the colonists, who might have been defeated by a massive effort fromthe
start.
- 2. The Navy. The British Navy had suffered from the economies
of the Tory administrations. It was unable to meet all the demands made
upon it--in India, Europe, the West Indies and America. One result was
that the French were able to ensure the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
- 3. The Generals. The British commanders were not acustomed to
the sort of war in which they were engaged. They were not ready for the
partisan warfare waged by the colonists, who in many areas used small groups
of militia to ambush British columns. The British commanders lack the intimate
knowledge of the countryside which the Americans had. They insisted that
their men wear red, powder their hear and generally behave as if they were
on parade, thus making their men easier targets for the skirmishing Americans.
- 4. The Mercenaries. The British forces were ultimately handicapped
by the extensive use of German (Hessian) Mercenaries, who made up a significant
part of the expeditionary forces. The Hessians had little enthusiasm for
combat and were more interested in looting. This turned even vacillating
colonists against them. The Americans, on the other hand, enjoyed the leadership
of Washington, whose force of character kept his forces together eeven
in the most difficult periods.
- 5. Distance. The British were hampered by the long sea journey
which had to be made if reenforcements and orders were to get through.
The Americans, on the other hand, had short internal lines of communication.
- VII. New Form of Conflict--The American Revolution.
- A) Colonial War--Against Colonial Power.
- B) A National Liberation War.
- 1. existed before--uprisings, etc.
- 2. successful.
- C) Why the Colonists Won.
- 1. Leadership -- British vs. American.
- 2. Logistics.
- 3. Mercenaries.
- 4. Militia.
- 5. Shift in Diplomacy.
- D) America's Citizen Army.
- 1. No military elite.
- 2. Frontiersmen.
- 3. Population could not maintain regular army.
- 4. Part-time soldiers--like Rome.
- 5. Eventually Trained in European Tactics.
- 6. Used light Infantry Tactics.
- VIII. Conclusions. Military significance.
- A) Saw the birth of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
- B) Weakened British predominance as an overseas power.
- C) Influenced the reform movement in Britain.
- D) Influenced the French, the Polish and other European movements
for popular sovereignty and national independence in Europe through the
participation of volunteers. Kosciusko, Lafayette, Von Steuben.
- E)The Expenditures of France in supporting the Am,erican Revolution
worsened the fiscal crisis that was one of the immediate factoprs in the
outbreak of the French Revolution of 1789.