I'm a bit late to the party but I remember reading a book, I want to say by John Keegan, who writes some great military history, that argued the point that Britain did fight like mad in North America to hold onto what they saw as their most valuable colonial possessions.

It is just hard today to understand that it was the Caribbean they were really worried about. At the time sugar and rum production was one of the most important parts of the British economy. It would have been a financial disaster for them to have lost those islands or their growing colonial territory in India.

The American colonies, on the other hand, cost Britain money without generating massive amounts of revenue. We weren't worth it to keep fighting over and after Yorktown the writing was on the wall for the British.

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Posted by Champagne

Already Conquered USA.

Member since Oct 2007

48709 posts

Posted on 3/17/15 at 9:47 pm to Arksulli

quote:
The American colonies, on the other hand, cost Britain money without generating massive amounts of revenue. We weren't worth it to keep fighting over and after Yorktown the writing was on the wall for the British.

John Keegan is a great historian, but, he is British.

The notion that Great Britain didn't REALLY fight hard to beat down the Rebellious Colonies in North America is, IMHO, Anglophile revisionism.

Great Britain fought that war for EIGHT YEARS, and two whole years after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. This is clear and convincing evidence that Britain strained every military sinew to win that war. They quit because they were militarily defeated, not because of some "soft power" policy factors.

I admit that the American Colonies were lucky to have gained the military victory, but, gain it they did. It was a minor miracle!

Why do today's history professors feel the need to diminish the decisive impact of military victory when the question of imposing US policy on an opponent is raised?

Gentlemen, we aren't going to "soft power" our way to US national security. It will have to be secured by the threat of or execution of US military force. That's the way the American Revolution was won, and that's they way that our Republic will be kept secure.

We can ignore Clausewitz at our own peril. The bad guys will always seek to impose their policy upon us by other methods besides soft policy factors.

This post was edited on 3/17/15 at 10:13 pm

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