Patriot forces' chances of winning the American Revolutionary War

Mindset American

Not all people supported the Revolution. In fact, a great deal of the colonists did not. As McCullough shows in 1776, a Patriot victory was far from ensured. The loyalists were strong, and came from various walks of life. King George III enjoyed relative popularity with many groups, all but the colonists who protested taxation policies and absentee rule. The King was powerful; he felt "America must be made to obey," (6). McCullough points out that one of the main reasons the Patriots won was that their forces were enthusiastic and underestimated. The British portrayed the Americans as "raw, undisciplined, cowardly men," (6). Yet these were the Tories. A small contingency of Whigs understood that the mindset of the Americans at the time of the Revolution was firmly set on the future. Therefore, it was absolutely possible to win the war based on several different factors. First, the war was winnable because the English underestimated the Americans in terms of how organized they could be and how strong they could fight. Second, the war was winnable because the British had scattered resources throughout the Empire and the colonies extended throughout not only North America but also into the Caribbean. Third, the Patriots enjoyed support from some of England's most formidable European enemies. These three factors (underestimation of the enemy, scattered resources, and help from others) ensured a Tory loss and a historic win for the new United States of America.

As in all wars, there are times when doubt sets in. General George Washington felt an enormous amount of doubt when he crossed the Delaware. However, the American patriot at the time was riled up and angry over the Stamp Act and other legislation deemed unfair. The Americans were ready to fight the British. They might have won had the British not underestimated the American ability to understand their own territory, use the knowledge the natives taught them about that territory, and garner support from international friends. "David McCullough's account bears out the saying that this war was lost by the British rather than won by the Americans," (Ascherson). The British strategy was arrogant, and therefore the Americans were able to seize the strategic advantage.

There were political and historical contexts to the year 1776 that also illustrate why the British lost the War of Independence. The British Empire was engaged in multiple enterprises around the world and especially in the North American and Caribbean regions. Canada was a strong point of the British Empire at the time, and there were resources scattered throughout the area. The British did not have an organized response to the fighting that had broken out a few years before the American victory. Furthermore, many American Tories moved up north to Canada to escape the civil war instead of fighting with the Loyalists.