Ryan Houghton: The Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The below is an exert from an essay examing the impact of foreign influence on the American Revolutionary War. This was an undergraduate essay and while factual is meant more as informative.

The American Revolutionary War spanned from 1775-1783.The conflict saw the death of  over 100,000 British and American servicemen, with third party states also suffering large  causalities. The conclusion of the war, cemented in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, gave peace to  the conflict and official recognition to the United States of America.1 With five European states and a host of Native American tribes involved, foreign intervention was very much a part of this war.

On November 30th, 1777, nearly one year in post as commissioner to France, Benjamin Franklin was informed of two events. First, that Philadelphia had fallen to the Americans, and “greater news than that, General Burgoyne and his army are prisoners.” This  news brought with it the likely certainty and later the reality of official French entry into the American Revolutionary War. 

Few historians go into detail into how exactly Burgoyne’s army of over 5,000 was captured. For easier, from an American perspective to assume it was a simple victory and surrender scenario. The truth however was betrayal. Betrayal in war time is not uncommon. In the American Revolutionary War, it was a reoccurring feature. Cases such as that of Benedict Arnold, who joined the British after immense ingratitude shown by his American colleagues are well known. Indeed the term “Benedict Arnold” is synonymous with a traitor in modern usage.

Perhaps less well known, yet of even greater impact on the outcome of the war was the broken Convention of Saratoga. Signed on October 17th, 1777, by the British General, John Burgoyne, and American Major General Horatio Gates, the convention allowed the British to disarm and retreat to Europe. Critically the army would maintain its integrity and not be taken prisoner. Gates viewed this as an easier alternative than fighting the remaining 5,800 British soldiers to the last man. The Continental Congress, however, disagreed, nullifying the agreement on January 8th for scrupulous reasons, in what was described by historian Robert Harvey as “Perhaps the most shameful single episode in the birth of independent America.” Had George Washington, then commander in chief of the Continental army held to the promises of his officer Gates, then perhaps history would have unfolded differently. 

In assessing its impact, French intervention will be broken into two periods: the years before formal alliance in 1778 and the period that followed until the conclusion of the war. It seems fashionable to look at the grand finale of the War at the Siege of Yorktown where the French Navy played a vital role. That battle and the victory that followed, however, may never have come if were not for more subtle efforts early on in the revolution. One of the most pressing needs of the new independence cause was gunpowder. This was summarised in exasperation by George Washington writing in 1775 “Our want of powder is inconceivable. A daily waste and no supply administers a gloomy prospect.

There have been several studies into the production of gunpowder in the colonies before the formal alliance with France, The precise figure and therefore the quantifiable impact of French imports to America varies by study. Some have suggested that the first study by Stephenson are too pessimistic and his lack of detailed sources discredit his calculations regarding domestic production.  Stephenson’s study in 1925 into gunpowder supply resoundingly concludes that “there was no time during the first two and a half years of the Revolution when the colonies had nearly enough powder for their needs.”10 Even if one takes the view of Salay, who revises up Stephenson’s domestic production figures it is irrefutable that without French supply before Saratoga, “the revolution would have broken down long before that time”.

Fortunately for the Americans, the French were willing to spend money and a lot of it. Through their shell company established by the Comte de Vergennes, with the blessing of King Louis XVI, styled, Roderique Hortalez et Cie, the French gifted 1 million livre and had the Spanish match it. 16 The money arranged was to be, as instructed by Vergennes to Beaurmarchais, “at your own risk and peril, you shall furnish to America arms and everything else necessary to sustain war.” 17Had this financial aid not been provided, it’s difficult to see how the American’s would have continued their revolution. Indeed it’s entirely plausible that the Americans unable to deviate from a war of attrition would have been forced to reconcile with Britain. By the end of the conflict, France through grants, loans and gifts poured over twelve million livre into the American cause.18 Through financial assistance manifest in supplies routed via a shell company the French intervention arguably saved the revolution from a false start.

Though it was the first to recognise it in a legal capacity, France was not the only foreign power to aid the fledgling American nation. Initially the Spanish were hesitant. Spain would rather see a united effort with France against Portugal, or indeed even in Ireland. There was little appetite for this venture in France. Eventually, Spain agreed to support the French in their financing of the American cause, equal to the amount advanced by France. Perkins writing in 1911, reflects that there was lacklustre motive from Charles III who felt that “It was not befitting the dignity of the two nations to make common cause with apeople in revolt against their sovereign”.19 Perkins takes the view that Spain’s eventual donation equal to the French of 1 million livres, was “not given in order to secure their [America’s] success,” rather to keep the conflict going to exhaust both sides.More contemporary research, by those such as Yaniz, credit Spain with some semblance of an altruistic motive. It is difficult to see however on what evidence Yaniz substantiates this.

Check back soon for part 2 of this blog series about the American Revolutionary War as we determine  to what extent did foreign intervention lead to a British defeat during the American War of 

Independence.

Ryan Houghton is a Conservative councillor for Aberdeen’s George St & Harbour Ward and the Council’s Business Manager. Learn more about Ryan Houghton online here. Follow Ryan Houton on instagram here. Read the latest Ryan Houghton news here.