Importance Of The British Strategic Course Of Action During The American Revolution

The French suffered a significant defeat against the British during the Seven Years’ War. The devastating defeat was potentially the main reason why the French supported America during the revolution. French support given to the Americans remained private until, France and America signed an alliance treaty in 1778. The signing of the treaty was perhaps the most pivotal turning point in the American Revolution, as it caused Great Britain, arguably the world’s strongest power at the time, to drastically change their strategic course of action. The British chose to focus their strategy on gaining support from loyalists in the southern states, which proved to be a miserable failure because the British had greatly overestimated the amount of loyalists. Instead, the British strategic course of action should have been to focus …show more content…
Therefore, the British should have swiftly increased the Royal Navy’s presence to combat the newly announced American and France alliance. Such a decisively maneuver would have enabled the British to take over an overwhelming majority of American ports along the entire coastline. Thus, General George Washington would have had to face his principal concern. In turn, the British could have then imposed a naval blockade shutting the French out from the American mainland. Using this strategic course of action would have hit the Americans quickly, because the ports were a primary component of the infrastructure during the late 1770s. Secondly, the naval action would have severely degraded the American military weapons capability, and would have enabled to British to thwart off the French Navy. Lastly, the Clausewitzian trinity would have been broken due to loss of the will of the people. Thus, the naval maneuver could have potentially destroyed the American infrastructure, military, and social foundations of the PMESII