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.
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.