Unit 3: Revolutionary War

• Advantages & Disadvantages


  • Defense & Attrition
  • Familiarity with Landscape
  • Patriot Dedication & Propaganda
  • Foreign Aid?
  • Sectional Jealousy
  • Economic Crisis
• U.S. Advantages & Disadvantages

  • Fighting a defensive war of attrition
  • Knew the landscape
  • Strong belief in the cause
  • Foreign military advisors and possibility of foreign alliances
  • but sectional jealousy and economic crisis weakened the Patriot cause
  • recruitment issues
• British Advantages & Disadvantages


  • Powerful navy
  • Professional but maltreated army
  • Anglican followers and Loyalist allies
  • Hiring of Hessian mercenaries
  • but Ireland & France were distractions for Britain
  • long supply lines
  • Whigs in Parliament
  • Not popular in Great Britain
• U.S. Leaders


  • Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay (diplomats)
  • Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams (propagandists)
  • George Washington (commander of Continental Army)
  • Baron von Steuben (Prussian advisor)
  • Lafayette, Rochambeau & DeGrasse (French commanders)
  • Horatio Gates (northern campaign)
  • Nathanael Greene (southern campaign)
  • George Rogers Clark (frontier campaign)
• British Leaders


  • King George III (monarch)
  • Lord North (Parliament)
  • John Burgoyne (northern campaign)
  • Charles Cornwallis (southern campaign)
• Long Term Causes


  • French & Indian War… end of salutary neglect
  • Mercantilist policies & taxation
  • Colonists' desire for western land
  • Lack of political representation
  • Enlightenment philosophy
  • Quartering, abuse of privacy and the rights of the accused
• Short Term Cause/"Spark"


  Battles at Lexington & Concord, 1775 - "Shot Heard 'Round the World"
• U.S. Strategy


  • Defensive war of attrition
  • Fighting retreats, guerilla warfare & control of countryside
  • Seek foreign alliances
  • Franco-American Alliance, 1777
  • Spanish & Dutch aid
• British Strategy


  • Seize control of cities & ports
  • Recruit Loyalist allies
  • Use navy to control seas
• Phases


  • North
  • Middle
  • South
• Northern Campaign


  Massachusetts, 1775-1776
• Northern Campaign


  • Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill
  • Invasion of Canada, 1775
  • The Battle of Quebec 1775
• Middle Colonies


  New York & New Jersey, 1776-1777
• The Campaign for New York and New Jersey


  1. Marching north from New York

  2. Marching south from Canada

  3. Battle of Long Island: August 1776

  4. Washington Crossing the Delaware

  5. Battle of Trenton

  6. Battle of Princeton: January 1777
• Saratoga, 1777


  Significant Patriot victory, led to formation of Franco-American alliance
• Saratoga, 1777


  • Battle of Saratoga, 1777
• Franco-American Alliance, 1777


  French and Spanish loans helped finance the American cause, French entry into the conflict forced the British to withdraw troops from the mainland to protect their Caribbean colonies
• Philadelphia, 1777


  American forces in Pennsylvania were forced to retreat into Valley Forge
• NY, NJ & Philly

  Britain seized control of cities, Washington: fighting retreats, by the end of 1778, the war remained a stalemate
• Western Campaign


  Patriots vs. Loyalist indigenous Americans, George Rogers Clark countered by capturing several British posts
• Southern Campaign


  By the late 1770s, the British had shifted their focus to the South, violence between Loyalists and Patriots created unrest, British captured Charleston in 1780, British attempted to gain control over the rural south by implementing a policy of pacification that failed
• Southern Campaign


  • Battle of Savannah
  • Battle of Cowpens
  • Battle of the Chesapeake, 1781
  • Siege of Yorktown
• U.S. Homefront


  • Population was divided: 1/3 Patriot, 1/3 Loyalist, 1/3 neutral
  • Major inflationary problems
  • Foreign trade was almost completely severed early on in the war
• British Homefront


  • War in America embroiled Britain in conflict with France, Spain & the Dutch
  • British blockade created problems with the Armed Neutrality League
  • The war was unpopular in Britain… Whigs took control of Parliament and offered generous terms to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris
• Treaty of Paris (1783)


  Recognized independence of the United States, set northern border between US and British Canada, Mississippi River boundary between US and Spanish territory and navigation of river open to American and British citizens, Florida returned to Spain, Americans promised to repay war debts to France and others, Great Britain agreed to withdraw its remaining troops from United States territory, Congress pledged to recommend to the state that the rights and property of American Loyalists be restored and that no future action be taken against them
• Weather delayed Congressmen going to Annapolis to vote for the Treaty of Paris
• In North America, the winter of 1784 was the longest and one of the coldest on record, with the longest period of below-zero temperatures in New England, the largest accumulation of snow in New Jersey, the longest freezing over of Chesapeake Bay, and a huge snowstorm hitting the South, with the Mississippi River freezing at New Orleans and ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico. This was due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland.
• Women in the American Revolution


  When Women Lost the Vote timeline
• Black Americans


  More than 50,000 slaves fought for the British, thousands of others fought for the Patriots and won their freedom, northern states began to abolish slavery, the Upper South relaxed its bans on emancipation, a free African American community emerged with racially defined churches, schools and other institutions, several African American writers became prominent
• Indigenous Americans


  Many nations sided with British over Americans, Iroquois Confederacy split, Stockbridge (MA) indigenous population fought with colonists
• Articles of Confederation


  First constitution of the United States, loose union of autonomous states, Congress had limited central power, reserving powers such as taxation to the states, Maryland held up ratification for three years until the eight states with western land claims ceded them to the national government
• First State Constitutions


  Fourteen states adopted constitutions between 1776 and 1780, shaped by debates between radicals and conservatives, Pennsylvania: Democrats had seized power in 1776; all power in a unicameral assembly elected by all free male taxpayers, Maryland: Conservatives controlled; maintained high property requirements for office-holding
• Declaration of Rights


  Virginia's Declaration of Rights provided the model for other state guarantees of such rights as freedom of speech, assembly, and the press, state bills of rights were important precedents of the United States Bill of Rights, 1776 New Jersey constitution enfranchised women, states abolished aristocratic inheritance customs and established religious freedom
• The Broadened Base of Politics

  Most states had greatly expanded the electorate, by eliminating Tories/Loyalists from politics, there was a shift to the left, many Americans accepted a new democratic ideology that asserted that government should directly reflect popular wishes, conservatives argued for balanced government, fearing majority tyranny could lead to a violation of property rights
• Financing the War


  Congress and the states financed the revolution mainly by issuing paper currency that caused runaway inflation, Secretary of Finance, Robert Morris, met interest payments on the debt, but did not persuade Congress to come up with an independent source of income
• The Problem of the West

  Western land settlement raised new issues, including land losses for several nations, tens of thousands of Americans rushing into the newly acquired Ohio River Valley, British and Spanish governments plotting to woo the settlers
• The Land Ordinance of 1785

  3 land ordinances provided for organizing the land for settlement, self-government and eventual statehood, provided for orderly division of land into townships, regular land sales, and the abolition of slavery in the Northwest Territory
• Impact of the Revolution

  The American Revolution had an impact on other revolutions, such as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution
• A public health crisis nearly derailed the American Revolution
• A letter helped win the American Revolution