After the French and Indian war, the British king, George III was not allowing colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountain. The British king also made colonists pay extra taxes for protection and the war debt. These extra taxes included Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act, and the Tea Act. During the 1700s Enlightenment, colonists started to question the authority of the government which led to boycott or protest on no taxation without representation. All these events had slowly sparked the bomb of revolution. Eventually, the bomb exploded in the 1770s because the British troops opened fire on protesters and a few years later the first exchange of gunfire between colonists and British troops occurred in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
The Patriots made famous propaganda based on the facts that happened in the Boston Massacre to convince the neutral groups. There were differences among the colonists. Some colonists stayed neutral. Most colonists at the north were Patriots; who wanted independence from the British king. On the other hand, colonists who lived in the south were loyalists because they had big plantations and traded with British. So the loyalists remained loyal to the British king since they believed taxation was justified.
The French and British had competed with each other over hundreds of years. Most recently in the 1750s, the French lost the French and Indian war in North America to British colonists. The French had seen the colonists rebel against the British king for their liberty, and they decided to support the colonies by giving away guns, money, and solders to fight against British during the American revolution.
What if the French never supported the colonies during the American revolution?
I think if French never supported the colonies, the United States would have a long and bitter fight against Britain. Eventually, the colonies would lose the war, and the British king would have even harsher punishment to the colonies. In my opinion, even the Patriots who had rebel passion and the native skill to surprise attack would have struggled without the power of the French. In the Western mountains patriots had sharp shooters and guns that can shoot 250 yards away. It still would have been hard to defeat the “Red clothes” British since they had experienced leaders and 6 times more experience to fight in battle than the Patriots. Also, the British had native alliances. But the most important points were the British had large fleets of supply ships in a well trained Navy and large amounts of professional troops. On the other hand, the Patriots had no organized army, navy and money to fight for this expressive war.
I wonder if French never supported the colonies. Would another foreign country come to support?
Source: Mr. Hardy’s History Class
Andrew Powers • Apr 24, 2015 at 1:16 pm
No way. We won before it started. Britain was barely making any money off of the 13 colonies before the revolution, Transporting and supplying the army necessary to defeat the revolution would have been inappreciably expensive. The British could only with great difficulty raise troops so they were forced to rely (about 1/4 of the troops deployed) on Hessian and other German mercenaries. Who were expensive and after finding out they had been lied to (they were told they were going to defend the colonists against native attacks) low on moral. Also the British faced a much larger rebellion in the actually valuable colony of India. British forces were only able to operate near the sea which meant the patriots were largely free to move troops and supplies in the frontier regions. The french certainty made things quicker. I think Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben helped about as much as the french maybe a little less. Also Spain came in pretty soon but officially entered the war near the end. The Netherlands also fought Britain. I applaud the level of thought and detail you point into this article. it really shows!
SEb_dELGADO • Oct 3, 2014 at 12:53 pm
I do believe Patriot would have gone through a long an sorrow death battle with the British red coats because of the advantages that King George III supplied to the red coats like their powerful navy, strong experienced combat leaders and most of all military supplies like weapons money and a large amount of soldiers, I also do wonder if an anonymous patriot victor would have occurred due to help from foreign countries like possibly Africans and all the slaves would have come together and defeated the British!