The Strategies and Politics of the American War of Independence

Abstract

Political-military strategies in the American War of Independence evolved interactively in response to a combination of diverse multifaceted factors, cultural, ideological and psychological, no less than material, tactical or geographical. On the Patriot side, fragmented and militia-oriented as it was, the ending of any hope to bring Canada into the revolutionary front, or the growth of confidence in guerrilla warfare and international support, or the persistence of a widespread fear that Britain might strike back easily, were to prove as much important as the dissemination of a new notion of nationhood and the creation of a Continental Army. On the British side, passivity in Europe and leniency towards the rebels stood as the main tenets of a “satisfied” power which longed for a restoration in America that would be of limited value, if concessions had to be made to ensure international neutrality, and should a substantial garrison be raised and left to hold an irreparably disaffected population down.