JPME Ph. I Mod II US Revolutionary War from the USNWC

Ref: Naval War College (Various). JPME Phase 1 Mod 2: US Revolutionary War. Joint Professional Military Education (JPME).

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Summary­

  • Notes from various readings, instructors, presentations from the US Naval War College’s Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase I Mod II Course covering the American Revolutionary War.

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---British---

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British Forces

Major Figures

  • Lord North: Minister of the British King

  • Lord Barrington: British War Secretary

  • John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich: First Lord of the Admiralty

  • Lord George Germaine: Secretary of the Colonies; leader and lead planner for all British forces in America. Germaine was charged with the suppression of the rebellion and believed in crushing it by brute force.

  • General Clinton: Commander of British forces in N. America.

  • VADM Sir Marriott Arbuthnot: North American Royal Naval Commander.

  • General Cornwallis: British Operational Field Commander.

    • Cornwallis's entire being and personality drove him to bold, risky, aggressive, offensive action at which he proved a master of war, tactically and operationally. Unfortunately for the royal cause, these actions proved to be completely counter to a war-winning strategy.

  • Edmund Burke: Leader of England’s unofficial opposition party, the Old Whigs, who preferred a negotiated settlement with the colonies as opposed to military force. Buke suggested that force might inflame the conflict out of control.

 

  • British Strategic Triad: Clinton, Cornwallis, Germain.

  • British Irregulars: Colonials, Queen's Rangers, Native Americans, Highlanders, British American Units.

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British Strategy

  • The British had to reassess their strategic priorities, as the French and the Spanish sought to seize British colonies in the Caribbean, the Med, and India.

  • Traditional British Strategy: Sea Power, hire continental armies.

  • Domino Theory: If colonies gain freedom, other British holdings/colonies would follow suit.

  • British Understanding of the War: A big riot that could be crushed with force

  • Britain’s persistent strategic dilemma was the need to transport, insert, and maintain limited forces on a distant continent against a predominantly hostile and potentially more numerous foe.

 

British Strategic Assumptions

  • Control of Key Fortifications which can withstand siege.

  • Ability to raise local forces and logistical support.

  • Quick Decisive Victory ends resistance.

 

British Operational Imperatives

  • Defeat and render ineffective the American's conventional military forces.

  • Secure (later win) popular support while undermining that for congress' war.

  • Convince American leadership to negotiate a settlement

 

Strategies

  • Shock & Awe Campaign: Led by brothers Admiral Lord Richard Howe and General Sir William Howe; had spectacular operational success initially, but surprisingly failed to achieve the British political objective of restoring obedience to the crown.

  • Barrington Plan: Establish a 5000km Naval blockade with a concentration of forces in Canada and FL.

  • Enclave Strategy: Establish protected enclaves in areas of loyalist concentration built around the control of key ports such as Philadelphia, Annapolis, New York, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, Norfolk, Boston.

    • A coastal enclave strategy with naval command of the seas enforcing an economic blockade and commerce control had been proposed in the rebellion's early years by Lord Barrington, then secretary of war. An enclave strategy had the salutary effect of providing a protected area for Loyalists as well as the ability of Crown authorities to support Loyalist business and industry while concurrently hampering rebels outside the protected areas. However, both the King and Germain preferred the iron fist, crush the rebellion by brute force approach; the coastal enclave idea died swiftly.

  • Annihilation by Strategic Offensive: The chosen offensive; undercut and isolate rebels in New England while restoring allegiance from the rest of colonies.

    • The initial strategic concept called for retaking each colony in turn from South to North while establishing the conditions whereby local loyalists could restore the Crown's authority to civil government.

  • Southern Campaign

    • Towards the end of 1776 it was apparent to many in England that pacification of New England was very difficult due to the high concentration of Patriots, and so London decided to isolate New England and concentrate on the central and southern regions where loyalist supposedly could be rallied.

    • British Assumptions

      • By conducting aggressive, offensive operations in the Southern Colonies- Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, the British assumed vast loyalist support in the region would materialize.

      • Loyalists would provide for the logistic needs of the engaged forces as well as additional irregular forces.

      • The capture of key cities, including Savannah and Charleston through Joint Army and Royal Navy amphibious operations, would establish safe operating bases from which to launch offensive actions into the interior.

      • Loyalists would then re-take political control of areas lost previously to the rebels, re- establish Crown law and authority and maintain security against any rebel resurgence

      • Re-establishing Crown Control in the South would undercut the export of key commodities, including rice, tobacco, and indigo, the principal rebel sources of income while placing immense pressure on the Middle and New England colonies to agree to a negotiated settlement.

  • Hudson Valley Plan (1777): Cut off New England Colonies.

    • Control of the Lake Champlain- Lake George-Hudson River route from Canada to NYC would cut off New England from the rest of the American colonies.

 

British Campaign

  • Ph. I: Great Riot; offensive operations using brute force.

  • Ph. II: Divide and conquer; isolate New England from Middle and Southern America.

  • Ph. III: Southern strategy; break the back of the rebellion one colony at a time from GA upwards.

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British Mistakes

  • Managing a war on the operational as well as strategic level from 5000km distant, especially one as irregular and unconventional to the European experience as this one, proved beyond the capabilities of the existing British military system.

  • The British assumed the American center of gravity (COG) were the cities- Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Charleston et al. Only too late did they realize that the true COG was two-fold- the continental army and its ability to remain viable as a symbol of hope and resistance, and, more importantly, public support.

  • In terms of the British Strategic Conundrum, the nation had to fight, after 1778, three different wars with limited resources and manpower, a situation exacerbated by the immense downsizing, especially in the Royal Navy, that had occurred after the 7 Years War of 1755-1763. Each war had profoundly different requirements. While the various officials in London struggled with the problems inherent in prosecuting multiple forms of war on a global scale, a similar context confronted Clinton, Cornwallis, and Crown forces in the South. Britain was fighting three different types of wars: conventional, irregular, and revolutionary.

  • With the need to defend British Indian ocean commerce from the depredations of Admiral Chevalier Suffren de Saint-Tropez, support the defense of Gibraltar and most critically, defend the West Indies islands from French and Spanish attacks, the Royal Navy reached a decided breaking point.

 

British failures

  • Misperceived the nature of the conflict.

  • Misidentified the American COGs.

  • Extended communication/logistical issue with 5000km distance.

  • Suffered from a debilitating strategic incoherence.

  • No "Great Director" to oversee strategic direction of the war.

  • Germain lacked political capital and personality to inspire, overawe, intimidate, motivate.

  • Failed to gain and maintain "command of the sea."

  • Failed to ensure unity of command and unity of effort.

  • Placed potential neutrals on " death ground.'

  • Germain either left his generals with too much latitude, or without a clearly defined overall strategy.

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---American---

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American Forces

·       General George Washington wanted a regular continental army for 1) legitimacy and 2) he could deploy troops anywhere, as opposed to militia armies.

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American Strategy

  • Aside from poor preparation, the American Army suffered two major disadvantages. First, it had a high turnover rate of personnel as soldiers’ enlistments ended around Christmas each year. Second, it was supported by colonial militias, which aside from being more poorly training than the continental army, were loyal to the colonies that supported them.

  • Washington initially preferred to employ conventional European linear tactics to engage the British Army, the weaknesses of the Continental Army in conventional combat forced him into a strategic re-assessment by late 1776. He adopted a new strategy of defending key sites, called a "war of posts" that compelled the British to diffuse their forces and engage in multiple offensive actions designed to destroy the Continental Army in conventional operations. By 1778, Washington had evolved to a classic "Fabian" strategy or "Attrition by strategic defense," to sap the will of the British, both military and civil authority, to continue the war. He needed incremental victories to maintain his army's morale and to ensure continued congressional and public support for what he correctly assumed would be a protracted war.

  • The Political organization of the American's complicated winning the war enormously. Congress was a coalition of independent states jealous of any central authority that might become dangerous to liberty.

 

American Strategies

  • Guerilla Style Warfare: Ambush of detached units, small engagements, assaults on isolated outposts, garrisons and supply lines aimed at the derestriction of the adversary military’s ability and logistics.

    • Washington ordered Greene to continue the on-going guerrilla-style warfare against the British and Loyalists.

  • Partisan Warfare: Make it impossible for British to operate or forage- continual harassment.

  • War of Posts: Compel the British to diffuse their forces and engage in multiple offensive actions.

  • Fabian Strategy (‘Attrition by Strategic Defense’): Sap the will of the British, both military and civil authority, to continue the war by incremental victories over detached forces and outposts in order to maintain his army’s morale and to ensure continued congressional and public support for a protracted war.

  • Operation Hessian Desertion: Offered Hessian's land grants in N. American in return for deserting (5000-6000 Hessian's desert).

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France

  • Maintained a policy of supplying arms and war goods to Americans.

  • Vergennes of France did not think open participation in the war was diplomatically or politically feasible until Washington's army demonstrated its strength and ability to gain military victories without significant assistance.

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Misc Quotes

"No country can maintain an army as cheaply as the Americans.”-John Ewald, Prussian Officer.

“Men are governed by opinion; this opinion is as much influenced by appearances as by realities.”

“Congress should have complete sovereignty in all that relates to war, peace, trade, finance, and to the management of foreign affairs, the right of declaring war of raising armies, officering, paying them, directing their motions in every respect, of equipping fleets, and doing the same with them, of building fortifications arsenals magazines, of making peace on such conditions as they think proper, of regulating trade, determining with what countries it shall be carried on, gaining indulgences, laying prohibitions on all the articles of export or import, imposing duties granting bounties and premiums, for exports and import, for instituting Admiralty courts &c, of coining money, establishing banks on such terms, and with such privileges as they think proper, appropriating funds and doing whatever else relates to the operations of finance, transacting everything with foreign nations, making alliances offensive and defensive, treaties of commerce, &c, &c.”-Hamilton to Duane (3 Sep, 1780).

“On whatever side it is considered, no great reinforcements are to be expected to the British Army in America. It is therefore Howe's business to make the most of his present strength, and as he is not numerous enough to conquer and garrison as he goes, his only hope lies in fighting us and giving a general defeat in one blow.”-Hamilton to Livingston (28 Jun, 1777).

“Their affairs will be growing worse-ours better- so that delay will ruin them. It will serve to perplex and fret them, and precipitate them into measures, that we can turn to good account. Our business than is to avoid a General Engagement and waste the enemy away by constantly goading their sides, in a desultory teazing way.”-Hamilton to Livingston (28 Jun, 1777).

“Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.”

“In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole: and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“The (American) people are protestants; and of that kind which is the most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built upon it.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“She complies too; she submits; she watches time. This is the immutable condition, the eternal law, of extensive and detached empire. Then, sir, from these 6 capital sources; of descent; of form of government; of religion in the northern provinces; of manners in the southern; of education; of the remoteness of the situation from the first mover of government; from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in your colonies, and increased with the increase of their wealth; a spirit, that unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is ready to consume us.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free, are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, amongst them, like something that is more noble and liberal.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study (as in the American colonies).”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“Abeunt Studia in Mores. This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt: in attack, ready in defense, full of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government by the badness of the principle. They argue misgovernment at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

“For in order to prove that the Americans have no right to their liberties, we are every day endeavouring to subvert the maxims which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of Freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood.”-Edmund Burke (22 Mar, 1775).

"Nothing can in my opinion be so prejudicial to the affairs of Great Britain as a want of discrimination...There is but one way of inducing the violent rebels to become our friends, and that is by convincing them it is in their interest to do so.”-Cornwallis to Arbuthnot.

"In Human affairs.…it seems to be a law inflexible and inexorable that he who will not risk cannot win.”-Admiral John Paul Jones to the Russian Imperial Navy.

“In pre-modern warfare, the commander who understood the nature of the enemy, gathered a realistic assessment of the spatial battlefield, processed the information quickly and issued appropriate orders, enjoyed a distinct advantage.”

“A successful commander will feign weakness and disorder, disguise his movement and entice the enemy to act imprudently. Once the deception is accomplished, he swiftly attacks at an unexpected weak point, and, if tactical surprise is achieved, overwhelms the stunned opponent. Bevin Alexander, a prominent military leadership analyst, advocates the tactical principle of " convergent: assault" whereby the successful commander divides his force into two or more bodies and attacks the enemy simultaneously while maintaining close coordination and control. Often, one force will hold the enemy in place and distract its attention while the second, through speed, mobility, and maneuver, surprises and overwhelms the defense. Almost all victorious generals achieve their results by successful movements against an enemy’s flanks or rear. At the point of attack, they concentrate their forces at the most vulnerable and important position. Once the enemy is beaten, the failure to follow-up with a vigorous pursuit often allow shim to reform and reengage at a later date.”

1) Approach on a line of least resistance; 2) Maneuver in the enemy's rear; 3) Occupy the central position; 4) Employ a plan with branches; 5) deliver convergent blows.

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Terminology

  • Civility: Adherence to a code of conduct that regulates actions such as the treatment of prisoners and non-combatants in accordance with the standards of the period.

  • Hybrid Warfare: The use of regular and irregular Warfare to keep an adversary off balance.

  • Information Operations: Information used in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent.

    • Military Information Support Operations (MISO)

      • The weak tend to do better than the strong in MISO Operations.

    • Strategic Communications (STRATCOM): Planning, execution, assessment, of USG themes and messages that advance interests and policies: public diplomacy, public affairs, political economic, information, military actions.

    • Military Deception (MILDEC): An attempt to amplify, or create an artificial, fog of war.

    • Psychological Operations (PSYOPS): An attempt to create a version of reality that will influence the enemy's behavior.

    • Operational Security (OPSEC): Denial of information collection opportunities to opposing forces.

  • Partisan War: Results when one of the sides in a conventional struggle Is profoundly defeated, but the spirit that motivated people to take up arms still exists. That attitude and willingness to continue the struggle often takes the form of irregular, guerrilla-type warfare. Popular support is the keystone to victory in this type of warfare. With it, even a weak, irregular force has at least a chance at victory. Without it, even the most capable, resolute and powerful conventional force might well lose in the end.

  • Sea Power: Naval power and maritime economic power (Mahan). According to Mahan, the only way for a nation to retain use of the sea for itself is to deny its use to an enemy.

  • Strategy of Annihilation: Profound destruction of the enemy's capability to continue the war, usually through battle or a strategy of attrition- a gradual wearing down of the opponent until he is unable or unwilling to continue, often through small battles and harassment.

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Chronology

  • 1783: The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 19 Oct, 1781: British General Cornwallis surrenders Yorktown.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 5 Sep, 1781: The Battle of Chesapeake Capes; French forces under Rear Admiral Francois Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse defeat British forces under Graves. The Royal Navy suffers 90 KIA, 246 WIA. More importantly, it cost them the war in America. Had graves succeeded and driven off De Grasse, he would have re-established British command of the sea in the Chesapeake.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 30 Aug, 1781: Washington and Rochambeau arrive in Philadelphia, to a festive and hearty welcome.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 0200, 19 Aug, 1781: The combined French-American army march out of their encampment and turn South towards the Chesapeake.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • Late Jul, 1781: de Grasse, bombarded on all sides by requests for his presence, sails to the Chesapeake to support his countryman, the marquis de Lafayette, against Cornwallis.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

    • In response to the French attempt to reinforce Virginia, Clinton dispatches 2,000 British troops under General Phillips to the Chesapeake to reinforce Arnold. A force of 20 warships ferries the force to Hampton Roads. Phillip's orders carried the germ of the coming disaster. In addition to supporting Arnold and placing himself under Cornwallis' command, he was to harass rebel positions and interdict supplies as well as establish a defensible post on the Chesapeake from which ships-of-the-line could anchor and operate. Thus, was born the plan that unfolded with the eventual establishment of the Yorktown post.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 9 Jun, 1781: Rochambeau and his combined Anglo-French army of ~9K, roughly equivalent to Clinton’s NY garrison, march out of Newport towards New York.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 25 Apr, 1781: Cornwallis with his force of just over 1400 men, march out of Wilmington and head north to VA.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 15 Mar, 1781: The Battle of Guildford Court House (modern Greensboro, NC); a 2100-man British forces under LtGen Cornwallis defeats a 4500-man American force under MGen Greene. The British, however, suffer considerable casualties (upwards of a quarter of their force). Cornwallis retreats to Yorktown to resupply from the sea.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • Jan- Mar, 1781: The Chase to the Dan River; British General Charles O’Hara chases Continental General Greene’s forces to the Dan River. The British march 230 miles in 8d (27 miles per day) burning supplies to catch them.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 17 Jan, 1781: The Battle of Cowpens, one of the most complete victories in American history. American forces under Morgan suffer 12 KIA and 61 WIA to Tarleton’s 110 KIA, >200 WIA, and 830 captured.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 7 Oct, 1780: The Battle of Kings Mountain; an American militia defeats a Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Ferguson.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 16 Aug, 1780: The Battle of Camden; British forces under LtGen Cornwallis route the numerically superior US force led by MGEN Gates, enabling the British to strengthen their hold on the Carolinas.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

    • The impression in Cornwallis' mind was that the enemy intended to not only vigorously defend the Carolinas, but to initiate offensive operations. Accordingly, he moved large amounts of provisions, ammunitions, and arms to the post of Camden, a small settlement some hundred miles NW of Charleston.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 19 Jun, 1780: The Battle of Ramsour’s Mill; an American militia defeats a Loyalist militia in present day Lincolnton, NC.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 5 Jun, 1780: Clinton departs for NY, leaving Cornwallis in overall command in the South.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 29 May, 1780: The Battle of Waxhaws, SC (‘the Waxhaw Massacre’); British forces under Tarleton slaughter Colonial troops under Buford. "Tarleton’s Quarter" becomes a symbol of resistance to royal tyranny.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

    • While attempting to surrender, Burford’s troops shot at Tarleton, causing his horse to fall and trap him. Loyalists and British troops were outraged at the breaking of the truce and proceeded to fall on the Americans (Wiki).

  • 22 May- 3 Jun, 1780: Clinton issues a series of proclamations, granting lenient paroles to captured soldiers, promising harsh treatments for anyone guilty of harassing or attacking loyalists, and stipulating that all citizens who fail to take the oath of allegiance to the crown were in rebellion.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1780: The Dutch intervene in the American Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.  

  • Dec, 1779: The British Invasion force of nearly 9K troops and 400 horses sails from New York to launch the main operations of the Southern Campaign under the command of VADM Arbuthnot.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 12 May, 1779: British forces under Clinton capture Charleston after Lincoln surrenders the city and his army, unconditionally. By the terms of surrender, militiamen receive a parole and can return home, but without arms and ammunition. Based on official British tallies, that amounted to over* 5,000 continental regulars, 33,000 cartridges, 8,000 artillery shot, and supplies.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 29 Dec, 1778: British forces capture Savannah.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • Mar, 1778: The French intervene in the American Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists. French entry into the war led to Spanish Entry and later Dutch entry…including a declaration of neutrality by Russia.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 14 Jun- 17 Oct, 1777: The Saratoga Campaign is fought as an attempt by the British High command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River Valley. The campaign results in a decisive American victory, the surrender of British General Burgoyne’s Army, and leads to French intervention on the side of the colonists.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1777: Murder of Loyalist Jennie McRae by Native Americans loyal to the British. American rebels’ message that Burgoyne’s Indians are raping and killing American women.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • Aug, 1776: British General Howe issues an Amnesty Proclamation.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 4 Jul, 1776: The Declaration of Independence.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

    • “A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.”-American Declaration of Independence.

  • 1775: The British government promises freedom for slaves in the American South, hardening resistance against them from Southern landowners.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1774: The British government passes the Quebec Act, allowing the catholic faith to be practiced in Canada.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1774: The British Government passes the Coercive Acts (‘Intolerable Acts’) including the Mass Act, the Boston Port Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. The Sons of Liberty compare these acts as the British taking away all American rights.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 16 Dec, 1773: The Boston Tea Party; American patriot Samuel Adams organizes a meeting at Nathaniel Hall to talk about unjust taxes imposed on Americans by the British crown. The Sons of Liberty show up dressed as Indians and dump tea into the harbor.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1760's: French Minister, Choiseul, steers France towards a policy of revenge following their humiliating defeat during the 7 years’ war.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

  • 1755-1763: The 7 Years War is fought between England and France, partially in North America; England takes French North American holdings, including vast expanses of land.-JPME Ph I Mod II by USNWC.

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