Revolutionary War Pros And Cons

Up against the greatest power in the world (at the time), the Colonists faced numerous disadvantages, but managed to win against the British. As a result, the British lost a very large amount of money, as well as a very valuable extension of land. The American Revolution, the war which established The United States as a separate country, was won due to the assistance of the French, the Colonists’ knowledge of the land, and battle tactics that they learned from the Native Americans.
It is April 19, 1775. 700+ British soldiers have marched to Lexington to seize an arsenal of patriot weapons, and instead finds an army of 77 minutemen waiting for them. Major John Pitcairn, commander of the 700 armed British troops, orders the minutemen to disperse, and leave them to destroy the weapons shortly before the “shot heard around the world” is fired. In a bloody exchange between the British soldiers, and the colonists, the minutemen suffer eight casualties, while the British only lose one of their own [1]. Little do they know what awaits them later at Concord.

The battle style that the colonists used, called guerrilla warfare, was a very large deciding factor in the victory of the colonists.

Having learned it from past experiences with the Native Americans, they were accustomed to the utilization of the land, and their surroundings. This differed from the traditional British style of fighting because it involves sabotage, hiding, and taking advantage of the land. This differed from the British style of fighting because when fighting, the British would stand in orderly rows and wait for a command to fire at the enemy, and expected their enemy to do the same [5]. With guerrilla tactics, along with the fact that the colonists had better guns, and the British were wearing bright red, fighting the British was a lot easier

[4].
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, guerrilla tactics was heavily dependent on the use of one’s surroundings [4]. This gave the colonists a huge advantage because they knew the high ground, had time to build forts at the most convenient spots, and knew the general area, unlike the British. An example of the use of the knowledge of the land is the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Battle of Bunker Hill shows how the colonists used the high ground in order to shoot downwards at their enemies, even though the colonists lost. This worked excellently against the British, however, due to the colonist’s waning ammunition supply, the British won, but at the cost of 200 of their own [5].
The assistance of the French, which later led to their own revolution, was partly fueled by the fact that they hated the British due to past skirmishes (ex. 7 years war). During the American Revolution, the French helped the colonists through loaning money, and lending military power, and supplies [2]. Up until 1777, when France declared war on Britain, the exchanges between the colonists and the French were kept secret, as France did not have enough military power to support themselves if the British were to attack them. However, in that time, the French were able to ship over 300,000 pounds of gunpowder, 30,000 muskets, 3,000 tents, 200+ pieces of artillery, and clothing for 30,000 soldiers [3]. This, along with the guerrilla tactics that the colonists used, gave the colonists a huge advantage over the British, and lead to their victory in the American Revolution.
The colonists did have quite a few disadvantages against the British, other than the fact that they had significantly less firepower. The colonist militiamen were often unorganized, preferred to stay close to home (where they could tend to their fields) and were not paid a lot. As a result, the Continental army never managed to recruit more than 18,000 troops [8]. Even at that number, there was a supply shortage, which begs the question; how did they plan on arming 75,000 soldiers (that was the maximum size of the army that the continental congress authorized), if that many were enlisted? So not only were the colonial soldiers unorganized and underpaid, but their governing body was unreliable. However, keeping all of this in mind, the fact remains that the colonists pulled through despite all of the disadvantages, and won the American Revolution.
The American Revolution, the war which established The United States as a separate country, was won due to the assistance of the French, the Colonists’ knowledge of the land, and battle tactics that they learned from the Native Americans. This inspired France’s own revolution, and gave the Colonists numerous advantages to counter their disadvantages during the war.