Question

1. When the American Revolution began, it looked like the colonies faced insurmountable odds. How did a ragtag band of volunteers without a proper source of funding for food and equipment manage to overcome the most powerful army and navy in the world?
How did each of the following contribute to the success of the American Revolution?
• George Washington’s leadership abilities
• Geography
• Foreign assistance
• Colonists’ spirit and attitude

Answer 1

First question: Great Britain with its larger and better trained army and navy launched a huge land and sea effort to crush the revolution. However, they had to transport and supply its army across the Atlantic Ocean. As the war continued, the British won many battles but gained little from their victories. The American patriots always formed new forces and continued the fight.

Answer 2

Colonists' spirit and attitude: Tension had been building between Great Britain and the American Colonies for more than 10 years before the Revolutionary War began. Starting in the mid-1760's, the British government passed a series of laws to increase its control over the colonies. Americans had grown used to a large measure of self-government. They strongly resisted the new laws, especially tax laws. Fierce debate developed over the British Parliament's right to tax the colonies without their consent.

Answer 3

George Washington's leadership abilities: George Washington is credited with establishing the understanding that the ultimate authority of the military should rest in the hands of a democratically elected government and not a handful of army officers. On 23rd December, 1783, he resigned from his post of commander-in-chief and declared his intent to retire from public life. However, that was not to be, as he was elected as the first president of United States of America in 1789.George Washington was appointed as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, by the Second Continental Congress, in Philadelphia

Answer 4

Geography:
1) Difficult and unfamiliar TERRAIN -- rocky and cold in New England, buggy and humid in the South, impassable forests and mountain in the West.

2) DISTANCE - Britain had to send and supply troops across an ocean, and to try to move them quickly from one theater of the war to another (an increasing problem after France and Spain joined the Americans)

3) DIFFUSION of population -- Britain could not simply conquer a few key cities and thereby win. In fact, they took control of the major cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston) at various points, and rather easily, but it did them little good.

Answer 5

Foreign Assistance: The warfare in the Middle Atlantic region settled almost to stagnation, but foreign aid was finally arriving. Agents of the new nation—notably Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane, and later John Adams—were striving to get help, and in 1777 Pierre de Beaumarchais had succeeded in getting arms and supplies sent to the colonials in time to help win the battle of Saratoga. That victory made it easier for France to enter upon an alliance with the United States, for which Franklin and the comte de Vergennes (the French foreign minister) signed (1778) a treaty. Spain entered the war against Great Britain in 1779, but Spanish help did little for the United States, while French soldiers and sailors and especially French supplies and money were of crucial importance.

Answer 6

Nicely done, Dragan!

Answer 7

Thank you haha