British Specific Strength and Weakness
Repeatedly, the British seem to fail because they don’t think through how their actions will look to others or how the enemy may act in innovative ways. Bottom line: It is a strength to have a self-righteous enemy. |
Issue |
Strength |
Weakness |
Experienced, trained army |
Able to field an army with
little preparation |
Also have lack of discipline at
the level of General Howe (1777+) |
Experienced, trained naval
force |
Able to shut off Patriot
shipping and provide supplies |
Face battles inland |
Need for soldiers in the region |
Pay mercenaries (the Hessians) |
Enrage the citizens (This
became one of the charges in the Declaration of Independence.) |
|
Recruit African slaves with
promise of freedom |
Enrage or frighten the
Southerners, who the British thought were their best allies |
Patriot Specific Strength and Weaknesses |
Issue |
Strength |
Weakness |
Citizen-soldier |
Personal commitment to battle
to defend own homeland |
Citizen-soldiers have short-term
enlistments, are untrained and undisciplined, and may never have faced combat
(and both risk to life and pain of taking life) before |
Funding |
Loans and gifts from foreign
nations, primarily from those nations that hated |
Continental Congress with
authority only to issue paper money and borrow. It will not be able to pay
its own soldiers or even feed them well. |
Government in foreign relations |
Benjamin Franklin as a person
able to persuade the French |
The 13 states are obviously
vulnerable. |
Government in general |
|
The Articles of Confederation
create a weak organization of virtually sovereign states. The centralized
effort is primarily with the army itself. It cannot: §
Draft troops §
Tax §
Control trade |
Navy |
French navy |
There is no navy. |
General Comparisons of the British and Patriot Vulnerabilities and Strengths |
The
first two rows cover issues detailed in the prior tables; the last two rows cover
larger issues that reveal the interconnections between weakness and strengths
of opponents, especially in a civil war and a guerrilla war.
Issue |
British |
Patriots |
Battleground |
Face 1500 miles of coast, distant
supply lines, and difficulties with supply inland. |
Fight on familiar and home
land. Can fight and then quickly look like innocent civilians. |
Power, relative |
Have the power of a great
nation. |
Have the allies (initially
secretly) of those who hate a great nation that has previously defeated them.
Patriots received aid from such nations as |
Public position |
Are stopping a rebellion of
those who want their own nation. |
Are fighting for the goals in the
Declaration of Independence, the type of goals that lead men like the Marquis
de Lafayette to volunteer. |
Requirement for victory |
Must force the Patriot army or
the people to quit fighting. (To force a civilian population to surrender may
lead to hatreds of multiple generations.) |
Must avoid having the army be
wiped out. (They can retreat for a long time if needed.) |
Pat. negotiators
are Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. Treaty (Preliminary peace in November)—separate
negotiation with
The peace terms included:
Copyright C. J. Bibus,
Ed.D. 2003-2010 |
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or cjb_classes@yahoo.com |
Last Updated: |
2010 |
WCJC Home: |