Term Paper on "Contribution of Sea Power to the Achievement of American Independence"

/>It should be noted that during the time of the Revolutionary War the British navy was one of the most elite such force in the war, as its victory against France in the French and Indian War, which preceded the Colonial War by a mere 15 years, largely denoted (Dull, 1985, p.13). The British had strengthened their naval brigades by the means of the Navigation Acts, most of which were passed during the 1650s and which contributed to the expansion of both merchant fleets as well as military ones. These fortifications to their naval forces allowed the British to largely expel the French from the continental United States in no small part due to the navy's successful blockading of the French fleet by William Pitt. This demonstration of the potency of the British naval brigade becomes magnified when compared to that of the colonists, which were nowhere near as experienced or accomplished in naval prowess. Also, the colonists lacked the sheer quantity of ships which the British Navy had, and were severely disadvantaged on the seas because of it.

Yet as any historian is well aware of, the turning point in the Revolutionary War occurred during the Battle of Saratoga, in which the United States' victory finally convinced the French, and their naval fleet, to join in their efforts to battle the British (Dull, 1975, p. 47). The French military's efforts, and their maritime accomplishments in particular, were an integral component to the colonists' victory. There are several reasons to support this assertion, the most convincing of which can be seen at the conclusion of the war when France's aid proved most prudent to the colonists' win. French naval forces were instrumental in the success of the American revolutionaries in the battle at Chesapeake Bay, which directly preceded the final, decisive battle at Yorktown. In the former, the French navy was able to sail from their outpost in the West Indies under the leadership of comte de Grasse to reach Chesapeake Bay, and provide a critical blockading of British forces led by general Cornwallis. It was due to the previously confirmed presence of de Grasse's fleet that American soldiers were galvanized to march into Virginia for the Battle at Yorktown. When the British fleet contested de Grasse's forces for control of Chesapeake Bay, the latter was able to stave them of in combat to successfully blockade Cornwallis.

The power of the seas which the French were able to give to the colonists during the Revolutionary War manifested itself on land as well as on water. Once the French became involved in the struggle against the British with the fledgling American forces, they were able to provide munitions, supplies, and much needed troops to defeat the British (Chartrand, 1991, p. 26). It should be noted that the forces that triumphed at Yorktown in Virginia were comprised of both colonial and French troops, the latter of which were shipped in under the authority of France's Rochambeau. Because the French were able to successfully navigate the waterways which were supposed to be controlled by the British, they were able to land these soldiers and enough supplies so that Rochambeau's forces merged with George Washington's in White Plains, New York, and made the long march to Virginia where they eventually defeated the British for good in the siege of Yorktown. Because of French contributions at sea, their troops helped Cornwallis surrender to Washington on October 19th of 1781 and bring the Revolutionary War to an end.

Another way in which the French Navy was able to successfully sway the tide of battle in the Revolutionary War occurred far from the North American shores where the colonial front was being fought. Once France signed the Treaty of Alliance on February 6, 1778, which stated that they were allies with the colonists in the latter's military engagements, the British declared war against the French on March 17, 1778 (Corwin, 1962, p.34). The overlying significance of this fact can be demonstrated by the fact that the British now had to fight a war on multiple fronts: in North America, on the seas off the North American coast, as well as on the shores and in the waterways of Europe itself. A crucial component of this last location for battle was the fact that the British and the French clashed with their respective navies several times off of European shores. One of several battles fought near the shores of Europe during the Colonial war was the Battle of Ushant, which was largely indecisive and costly to both sides. Although there was no clear French victory (or British defeat in this naval conflict), it served one highly valuable purpose to the colonists back on North American ground -- it prevented the British from engaging their full military (and in particular naval) might in their struggle against the American revolutionaries. The joining of the French fleet with colonial forces during the Revolutionary war not only allowed the colonists to benefit from direct aid of this European nation, but it also provided an excellent distraction for British forces by providing multiple fronts which weakened the efficacy of the British.

Skeptics of the effectiveness of the influence of the French navy and its control of the waterways during the achievement of American independence may point out that the French naval fleet, particularly at the onset of the war, was by no means as potent as that of the British. In fact, the French suffered several losses to the British naval forces (Brecher, 2003, p. 61) which would seem to indicate that the French navy's prowess at sea was not the determining factor in the colonial victory of the Revolutionary War. Such naysayers would more than likely to point out examples such as the failed attempt of American and French forces to capture Newport Rhode Island in 1778, when it had been occupied by British forces. The fault of the failure seems to lie with the French fleet in particular, since it was the mismanagement of Admiral d'Estaing who did not deliver French forces on land before battling the British flee that… READ MORE