Essay about American Success in Achieving Independence

Was American success in achieving independence due more to General Washington’s strategic skill or to British blunders? Introduction The British military was considered the strongest in the world at the outreach of fighting between England and the American colonies in 1775. Britain had just defeated France and the Indians in the Seven Years War and had attained its prominence as a world’s superpower. Yet despite Britain’s overpowering military dominance, the British found themselves unable to subdue General Washington and the American colonies. The American’s success in achieving independence during the American Revolution was not due to General Washington’s strategic skill but by numerous British blunders. The British mistakes during†¦show more content†¦General Washington and the Continental Army had been routed in the Battle of Long Island and withdrew to the defenses of Brooklyn Heights, which left them confined between Hessian and British troops and the East River. General Washington was able to keep the revolution alive by maintaining the Continental Army in the field. Shifting from offensive strategy to a defensive strategy Without French assistance, it is uncertain that the American colonies could have been a match over Britains 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 concentr ate her Navy led to not able to secure their most strategically locatedShow MoreRelatedThe Dream of the American Renaissance1016 Words   |  4 PagesThe Dream of the American Renaissance The American Renaissance is a tangent of the heavy Romanticism that influenced America prior, and expands upon the growing interest of the common man. The Period had writers of the Transcendentalist belief, who aspired to become larger than life itself; to ascend onto the level of a deity, and to break free from a dangerous world full of adversary. 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