Transcript Power Point

Chapter 8
America Secedes from the
Empire
Pg. 155-161
The Colonial War Becomes a Wider War
• In the 1779, Spain and
Holland entered the
war against Britain
• In the 1780, Catherine
the Great of Russia
took the lead in
organizing the Armed
Neutrality that lined up
all of Europe’s neutrals
in passive hostility
against England.
The Colonial War Becomes a
Wider War
• When the alliance with France was
formalized, the Americans were able to:
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gain access to large sums of money.
Double the size of their fighting forces.
Avail themselves of French naval strength.
Gain immense amounts of equipment.
French aid to the colonies:
- Greatly aided America’s struggle for
independence.
- Was motivated by what the French considered to
be their own national interests.
- Forced the British to change their military
strategy in America.
- Helped them protect their own West Indies
islands.
Blow and Counterblow
•
Besides Washington, the main American
commanders in the war were:
-George Rogers Clark in the West (here
in KY)
-Nathanael Greene in the South
-John Paul Jones at sea
•
French reinforcements, commanded by Comte de
Rochambeau, arrived in Newport, Rhode Island
in 1780, but flares sometimes erupted between
the Americans and the French.
•
In 1780, feeling unappreciated and lured by
British gold, Gen. Benedict Arnold turned
traitor by plotting with the British to sell out West
Point.
When the plot was discovered, he fled with the
British.
“Whom can we trust now?” cried George
Washington in anguish.
The British devised a plan to roll up the colonies
from the South.
Georgia was ruthlessly overrun in 1778-1779.
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• Comte de Rochambeau
• Marquis de Lafayette
• George Rogers Clark
• John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones’ Corpse
Benedict Arnold: Hero, Traitor
Blow and Counterblow
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Georgia was ruthlessly overrun in 1778-1779.
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Charleston, South Carolina, fell in 1780.
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In the Carolinas, Patriots bitterly fought their Loyalist neighbors, most
notably effective was Francis Marion’s (the Swamp Fox) hit and run
attacks on British detachments.
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However, in 1781, Daniel Morgan’s American riflemen wiped out a British
detachment at King’s Mountain, and then defeated a smaller force at
Cowpens.
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At the Carolina campaign of 1781, Quaker-reared tactician Gen. Nathanael
Greene distinguished himself with his strategy of delay.
– By slowly retreating and losing battles but winning campaigns, he
helped clear the British out of most of Georgia and South Carolina.
The Land Frontier and the Sea Frontier
• 1777 was known as the “bloody year” on
the frontier, as Indians went on a scalping
spree.
• Most of the Indians supported Britain
and believed that if they won, it would
stop American expansion into the
West, and save Indian land.
• Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, recently
converted to Anglicanism, and his men
ravaged the backcountry of Pennsylvania
and New York until checked by the
Americans in 1779.
• In 1784, the pro-British Iroquois (the
Oneidas and the Tuscaroras had sided
with the Americans, the other four with the
British) signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix,
the first treaty between the U.S. and an
Indian nation.
Simon Kenton saving Daniel Boone at the
siege of Boonesboro April 24, 1777
• Even in wartime, pioneers, such as Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone,
moved west, showing their gratitude to the French with such town
names as Louisville while remembering the revolution with Lexington,
Kentucky.
• George Rogers Clark, an audacious frontiersman, floated down the Ohio
River with about 175 men in 1778-1779 and captured British forts at
Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes in quick succession.
• The tiny American navy never really hurt
the British warships, but it did destroy
British merchant shipping and carried the
war into the waters around the British
Isles.
• Swift privateers prayed on enemy
shipping, capturing hundreds of British
merchant ships, forcing them to sail in
convoys.
• John Paul Jones & the Bonhomme Richard
Engaging the Serapis in Battle
• “I have not yet begun to fight!”
Yorktown and the Final Curtain
• Before the last decisive victory, inflation continued
to soar, and the government was virtually bankrupt.
It announced that it could only repay many of its
debts at a rate of 2.5 cents on the dollar.
• However, Cornwallis was blundering into a trap.
• Retreating to Chesapeake Bay and assuming that
British control of the seas would give him much
needed backup, Cornwallis instead was trapped by
Washington’s army, which had come 300 miles from
NY, Rochambeau’s French army, and the navy of
French Admiral de Grasse.
Surrender of Cornwallis to Washington
at Yorktown
• After hearing the news of Cornwallis’
defeat, Lord North cried, “Oh God! It’s all
over!”
• Stubborn King George wanted to continue
the war, since he still had 54,000 troops in
North America and 32,000 in the U.S., and
fighting did continue for about a year
after Yorktown, especially in the South,
but America had essentially already won.
Peace at Paris
• Many Brits were weary of the war, since they had suffered heavily in India
and the West Indies. The island of Minorca in the Mediterranean had fallen,
and the Rock of Gibraltar was tottering.
• Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay met in Paris for a peace deal.
• Jay suspected that France would try to keep the U.S. cooped up east of the
Alleghenies and keep America weak.
• Instead, Jay, thinking that France would betray American ambition to satisfy
those of Spain, secretly made separate overtures to London (against
instructions from Congress) and came to terms quickly with the British, who
were eager to entice one of their enemies from the alliance.
Peace at Paris
• With the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Britain formally recognized
U.S. independence and granted generous boundaries,
stretching majestically to the Mississippi River to the west, the
Great Lakes on the north, and to Spanish Florida on the South.
• The Yankees also retained a share in the priceless fisheries of
Newfoundland.
• For their part, the Americans agreed to not persecute Loyalists,
yet Congress could realistically only recommend to the colonial
legislatures that they should return or pay for confiscated
Loyalist land.
A New Nation Legitimized
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Britain ceded so much land
because it was trying to entice
America from its French
alliance.
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George Rogers Clark had only
conquered a small part of that
western land, so the ceded land
was quite generous.
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Also, fortunately for the brand
new U.S.A., the Americanfriendly Whigs were in control of
Parliament at the time of the
signing.
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France approved the treaty,
though with cautious eyes…..
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In truth, America came out a
HUGE winner, and seldom, if
ever, have any people been so
favored.
Treaty of Paris 1783