Why Did Britain Switch To A Southern Military Strategy

This paper is about the different characteristics of the Southern colonies for use in the plausible war. Based upon the areas of geography and climate, resources, and political and social life, the southern colonies will prove to be an asset to England in a possible war with France.

After 1778 the British shifted their attention to the southern colonies, which brought them initial prosperity when they recaptured Georgia and South Carolina for the Crown in 1779 and 1780. In 1781 British forces endeavored to subjugate Virginia, but a French naval victory just outside Chesapeake Bay led to a Franco-American siege at Yorktown and the capture of over 7,000 British soldiers. The defeat broke Britain's will to perpetuate the war. Constrained fighting perpetuated throughout 1782, while tranquility negotiations commenced. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris pacified the war and apperceived the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west A wider international tranquility was acceded, in which several territories were exchanged. The expensive war drove France into massive debt, which would contribute to the outbreak of a Revolution there as well.

Without French assistance, it is uncertain that the American colonies could have been a match over Britain's sizeable and well-equipped military. France clandestinely provided the American colonies with supplies and money, and upon formally declaring war on England in June 1778, also committed soldiers and naval fleets. With the French joining the naval war, Britain switched from an offensive strategy to a defensive strategy since their naval superiority is contested. Operations in America became secondary to defense of the British Isles and larger economic interests in the Caribbean. The ministry decided to defend and strike the French in West Indies, which was regarded as more valuable than the American colonies. The British militaries had to be dispersed in several theaters and spread so thin across the Atlantic and no longer concentrated on the colonies, which consequently lost the war in America (Middlekauff, p. 438). Britain’s failure to identify key locations to concentrate her Navy led to not able to secure their most strategically located

The war was primarily fought along the colonies separating New France, from Virginia to Nova Scotia. France controlled the early part of the war, rounding up British forces. It wasn’t until 1757 that Britain truly threw all its resources

The French's entry into the war meant that the power of the British Navy was challenged. The French-American alliance began poorly with the admittedly unsuccessful operations in Rhode Island in 1778 and Savannah in Georgia in 1779. One reason for the problems was that the priorities of the French and the Americans were not identical. France hoped to conquer the British areas in the Caribbean before they would help the Americans to secure independence. While the French financial assistance to the American war was already critically important, would not French military aid to show positive results before an

35: The British defeat of France in 2814 impacted the U.S. because it gave them hope that they could beat the

April 21st, 1780, was when General Lincoln made his first surrender offer to General Clinton (www.historyofwar.org). He would allow Charleston to be taken by the British as long as his army could leave the city

The French and Spanish allies that the colonists acquired, were a key element in the winning of the war, who without them, they would have never been able to win. “Britain’s rivals, especially France, helped America” (Mcdougal, 215). Foreign countries such as France started secretly giving money, supplies and men to the Colonies in 1775. Soon after, Spain and the Netherlands also joined in, making it a war where Britain had no major

If Spain had regained control, it would have caused Britain’s trade with these new nations to decrease. Britain also wanted to prevent Europeans from colonizing in the Americas. The British Foreign Minister suggested they should work together, but John Quincy Adams had already convinced Monroe to develop his own policy.

C. England and Prussia fought against France and Austria. Britain's main goal was to destroy France's ability to trade goods around the world.

Just like the British during these last two wars, the North had the mastery of the oceans, so the South had to make up for its small Navy by sticking to similar tactics to the ones used against the British. During the Civil war, the South implemented guerre de course, three words that are being mentioned a lot, just like the Navies of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The Confederate Navy did this pretty well during the war because “despite all the disadvantages under which the Confederate operated, it could challenge larger Union forces remarkable well up until late 1864,” (McPherson p363). The South received Foreign aid as well; secretly, the British suppled the South with ships such as the CSS

We Americans had allies, the French sent us troops and a navy and Spain sent us gun powder. The main reason we had allies were, Spain and France didn't like the British more than they liked us but they

The French and Indian War set the stage for future events that no one could ever have imagined. The economic practice of mercantilism, which insured profit only to the mother country was the accepted practice between England and her colonies. As long as these economic policies were met, England left much of the day to day governing of the colonies up to the colonies. It was this "salutory neglect" that ultimately led to the ideological differences between England and the colonies. England won the war, but it paid a great price for that victory. England was bankrupted, and as a result had no choice but to look to her colonies to regain financial stability. The pressures of taxation and naval restrictions imposed by the crown and Parliament,

Britain fought with France and the Indians in the French and Indian war. British fought the colonists and the spanish too. The British ruled 178 countries out of 200. So the Treaty of Paris stopped them temporarily. British was also the strongest country in North America.

An interesting fact is that both countries, America and France, fought their wars on their homeland. The Americans faced a small amount of British troops established in the colonies already, and they also had the Redcoats crossing and ocean from Great Britain. This gave the Americans an advantage that the French did not have. The Americans were blessed with more time to organize and more time for warning. The French did not have this advantage because they were fighting their own government on their own soil. Another significant part of each war is that the Americans did not have any neighbors whereas the French had to worry about invasion from other countries in their time of weakness. The best advantage the Americans had was the fact that the British Empire was the most hated country of the time. Many countries sent aid to America especially the French. The French paid for a large sum