WHY DID THE AMERICANS TRIUMPH

A detailed Summary of WHY DID THE AMERICANS TRIUMPH

The Americans triumphed in the war for Independence due to a number of reasons, which when combined, could only lead to one solution, that of victory for the Americans. As Hugh Brogan says, 'There was no middle ground for the Americans: for them it was either victory or total submission.' The reasons are far and wide reaching and include a number of failures by the British. The British failed to use the loyalist Americans who numbered up to a third of the population, they withheld some of their best troops from the conflict and suffered major communication problems. The role of George Washington as commander-in-chief was an important factor in the success of the Continental Army and the final reason for American success lies in the support it received from other nations and in particular from France.

The American Revolution divided the American people in three ways. There were those who wanted a new political order and wanted to be free from the British, there were those who were loyal to Britain and those who had not decided who to side with or did not care which way the conflict went. The revolutionaries called those loyal to Britain 'Tories, royalists or the King's men.' The British did not make enough use of what could

Europeans had long since devastated their forests. So when they came to

The main foreign support for the Americans came from the French who were still smarting over their defeat by Britain in the Seven Year's War and wanted to see the British defeated. The French supported the Americans from the start of the war when they sent over fourteen ships filled with military supplies. On 17th October 1777 General John Burgoyne found himself and the British troops surrounded at Saratoga, New York. There was nowhere for them to go and they surrendered to the Continental Army. This was one of the major turning points of the war as this was when the French realised that America could and probably would win the war. Within a few months of this event two treaties had been signed with France, a Treaty of Amity and Commerce 'in which France recognised the United States,' and a Treaty of Alliance. Included in the Treaty of Alliance was an agreement that if France were to get involved in the war then 'both countries would fight until American independence was won and neither would conclude a truce or peace without the formal consent of the other first obtained.' In June 1778 British ships fired upon French and the two countries were now at war. The French gave the Americans 'a subsidy of two million dollars and loans of almost seven million.' Spain became involved in the war as an ally of France as she wanted to regain Gibraltar from Britain and she also wanted to gain control of Florida once more. The Spanish aid to America included 'Four hundred thousand dollars in subsidies and two hundred and fifty thousand in loans.' The Dutch gave financial aid to the Americans and supplied them with a large amount of gunpowder; they also carried large amounts of the French supplies on their vessels over to America. This in turn led to Britain declaring war against the Dutch in 1780 over the question of neutral rights at sea. The conflict had now escalated and the British were at war in Europe and three thousand miles away in America. Their army and navy were now stretched to the limits and losing America now seemed a small cost to pay to the British in order to get themselves out of the mess that they were now in.

York thruway to come down. They had to hack their way through forest and

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Approximate Word count = 1693
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History