Great Britain in the Aftermath of the American Revolution

2008 ◽  
pp. 497-502
Author(s):  
Ian R. Christie
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution

Las Damas de la Havana, el Precursor, and Francisco de Saavedra: A Note on Spanish Participation in the Battle of Yorktown

1980 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
George Washington ◽  
French Army ◽  
Continental Army ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
English Colonies

As the American Revolution matured, foreign intervention on behalf of the Thirteen Colonies against Great Britain became increasingly important. Nowhere in that struggle was outside assistance more significant than at the seige of Yorktown during the autumn of 1781. It was here that a French army under the Count de Rochambeau and a French fleet under the Count de Grasse enabled George Washington to force the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Historians have always recognized how crucial French participation was for this last important battle in the English colonies. Indeed, it would not have taken place without their aid. Yet there was another ally of the Continental army at Yorktown whose contribution has often been belittled or ignored. That ally was Spain.

2. Diplomacy of the American Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-31
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Siracusa
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
The United States ◽  
Benjamin Franklin ◽  
John Adams ◽  
The Us

‘Diplomacy of the American Revolution’ considers the United States' battle for independence and the diplomatic efforts required to reach agreement with Great Britain. In order to win independence, the United States had found it necessary to involve itself in the international rivalries and politics of Europe. The negotiations between the US peace commissioners — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay — and the Comte de Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, the Earl of Shelburne, Richard Oswald, and the Spanish are worth examining at this point. A number of key treaties were signed during the negotiations, including the 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and Treaty of Alliance between America and France.

The British Parliament Between King and People

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The People ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
George Iii

This chapter begins the treatment of the English-speaking world, involving the structure of Parliament, the British constitution, and the American Revolution. Of all the constituted bodies of Europe, largely aristocratic in composition, which in some countries came into conflict with kings in the decade before 1775, the most famous and the most powerful was the Parliament of Great Britain, whose misfortune it was to be challenged from both sides at once. Or, at least, the most ardent devotees of the Houses of Parliament found Parliamentary independence being undermined by the King, in the person of George III, while at the same time a growing number of dissatisfied persons, in America, in Ireland, and in England itself, expressed increasing doubts on the independence of Parliament, invoking a higher authority which they called the People.

scholarly journals Essay: The Mad Patriot

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Adams
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
British Empire ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
John Adams ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Exact Moment ◽  
Precise Time

Historians have tried to trace the origin of the American Revolution, but few, if any, have dared indicate an exact moment in time. Yet sufficient evidence points to the chilly afternoon of February 24, 1761, inside the Old Town House (now the Old State House) in Boston as the precise time and place. Future president John Adams, who, as a 25-year-old Boston attorney in attendance at that occasion, later declared, “Then and there was the first scene of the first Act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there, the Child Independence was born” (Adams to Tudor, 29 March 1817). It was “then and there” that one of the American colonies’ most notable attorneys, James Otis, Jr., gave a speech that caused tremors throughout the British Empire. Textbooks have often downplayed this moment because the man who first sparked the American Revolution—James Otis, Jr.—was considered mad. However, we know today that James Otis Jr. was probably suffering from bipolar disorder and his condition was exacerbated by alcoholism.

“The Prophecy of Daniel is Now Literally Fulfilling”

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-114
Author(s):  
John Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Republic ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Social Upheaval

Contrary to the espoused rationalism of the leaders of the American Revolution, popular perceptions of the violent detachment from Great Britain and the creation of a new republic filled the public with apocalyptic anxiety and millenarian expectation. For some, the rapidly unfolding drama heralded the dawn of a new nation preordained by God and populated by his chosen people. For others, the recent wars and accompanying social upheaval confirmed the irretrievably depraved nature of humanity, and when compared to contemporaneous supernatural occurrences, displayed terrifying symptoms of the tribulation foretold in the biblical Books of Daniel and the Revelation of John.

The Last Battle of the American Revolution: Yorktown. No, The Bahamas! (The Spanish-American Expedition to Nassau in 1782)

1988 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Eric Beerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
New Providence ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
William Iii

History generally records Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 as the last battle of the American Revolution. Nevertheless, six months after that epic campaign, warships of the South Carolina Navy commanded by Commodore Alexander Gillon, transported Spanish General Juan Manuel de Cagigal's infantrymen from Havana to Nassau in the Bahamas, where the British capitulated on May 8, 1782. Thus, the Treaty of Versailles signed the following year made this little-known Spanish and American expedition the last battle of the American Revolution.The Bahamas, or Lucayos, an archipelago off the southeastern coast of the United States, take on increasing historical interest with the approach of the 500th Anniversary of Columbus's first landing in the New World 200 miles southeast of Nassau at Guanahani. The Bahamas, however, played only a minor role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas whereas, Great Britain gave priority to these strategic islands, making an initial settlement on the island of Eleuthera. The British later found a better harbor to the west and named the island New Providence which became their Bahama stronghold. King Charles II granted the Duke of Albemarle the Bahamas in 1670 and appointed John Wentworth as governor. Harrassed by plundering pirates, the British governor constructed a fort on New Providence in 1695 and named it Nassau in honor of King William III. The island's preoccupation changed in 1703 from marauding corsairs to a Spanish and French invasion during the War of the Spanish Succession. Great Britain regained control and maintained it until the outbreak of the American Revolution when John Paul Jones participated in the brief American seizure of Nassau in March 1776 in one of the first offensive operations in the history of the United States Navy.

“THE POWER OF FEELING”? EMOTION, SENSIBILITY, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARAH M. S. PEARSALL
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
American History ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Thomas Paine ◽  
Emotional Culture ◽  
Expression Of Emotion ◽  
The Revolution

In January 1776, Thomas Paine demanded to know whether “the Power of feeling” did not require that American colonists declare independence from Great Britain. Paine's efforts included an appeal to “common sense,” to the idea that it was only natural for colonists to end their ties with Britain. For Paine, independence did not depend on elaborately wrought arguments; instead, it should be obvious to all, even the most unlettered. His own emotionally charged language—the king was akin to a “crowned ruffian” descended from “a French Bastard landing with an armed Banditti”—sought to stir even those who still longed for reconciliation to “examine the passions and feelings of mankind” and to throw off the yoke of oppression. Paine's formulations, like these two books, raise numerous questions. How significant has the expression of emotion been in American history? How far can scholars go in attributing to it sufficient momentum to effect major historical change? Can something so universal be harnessed into nationalist political trajectories? Should America be seen as having a unique emotional culture in the eighteenth century? Did this exceptional culture of feeling contribute to the Revolution itself? These two authors answer yes to the last three questions, thus prompting re-evaluation of the “power of feeling” in the American Revolution itself.

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