today we're looking at advantages and disadvantages in the revolutionary war
hello welcome to the daily bell ringer please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the
questions down in the description so as we begin to study the american revolution and the battles
and military action that took place during the war it's important to recognize what the
advantages and disadvantages were for each side going into the war for the most part you'll find
that the british had just about every military advantage yet there were other factors that came
into play as the war wore on that would give the americans you know important advantages by the end
and although i won't hit every single factor favoring one side or the other
i i will hit some of the big ones so let's start with the british advantages
the british had overwhelming advantages compared to the americans and and honestly
it's remarkable that in the end and i'm sorry for this this is a spoiler but it's remarkable in the
end that the americans win the war for the british in the past 100 years prior to the revolution they
had won just about every conflict they had been involved in and they defeated both the french
and the spanish their military was well trained and experienced they had been in war before and
they knew how to handle themselves in a fight they had commanders who had seen combat that
knew how to conduct a war furthermore the british army was well equipped despite still having the
debt from the french indian war the british still had the wealth of a worldwide empire
that they could draw resources from but then lastly and arguably their greatest advantage
was that they had the strongest navy on the face of the earth ever since the british had
defeated the spanish armada back in 1588 they had maintained their dominance at sea the british had
an estimated 270 warships when the war began and that number rose to close to 500 by the war's end
the american disadvantages are basically the flip side of all of the british advantages unlike
the british the american military was untrained unexperienced and primarily made of militia which
again were just citizen soldiers they did not have experience like the british had many had fought in
the french and indian war but overwhelmingly most had no military experience at all secondly they
were poorly equipped poorly fed poorly armed i mean remember they're being supported by the
continental congress but the continental congress couldn't raise taxes on these newly formed states
at this time to support the army instead they had to kind of kindly ask for money from each
state which the states had had no obligation to necessarily hand over any money also you have to
consider that not every american was in favor of independence it was estimated that one in every
five americans was a loyalist and loyalists could spy or pass information onto the british about
the american movements lastly the americans had little to no navy at the beginning of the war it's
estimated that the americans had about 27 ships compared to 270 for the british and actually that
number went down to only 20 for the americans by the end of the war there were so few ships that
the continental congress had to use privateers or privately owned merchant ships as naval vessels
despite all of their advantages there actually were a number of factors working against the
british the big one was the fact that they were fighting a war 3000 miles across the ocean
it took weeks if not months to move troops and supplies to certain locations
likewise it took a long time for news of events and battles to travel back to britain
and then for them to make decisions and send those decisions back to america along those
same lines the geographic vastness of the american colonies being hundreds of miles long from north
to south was difficult to keep under control even once the british won battles in certain areas
next many of the british troops were hired soldiers or mercenaries many of these hired
soldiers were hessians who were highly trained german soldiers yet throughout history it has
basically been proven if a soldier is fighting for a paycheck rather than fighting for their home or
an ideal they tend not to fight as hard and or to be as resilient and lastly the war was unpopular
back in britain they had fought the french and indian war which had left them deeply in debt
and many people in britain did not necessarily see the value in fighting another war in north america
the americans basically had home field advantage over the british they knew the terrain the
geographic layout of where the war would be fought they knew where the trails were through the woods
and the best spots to fight and so this would come in handy later in the war as the americans
began to adopt more guerrilla tactics as the war wore on an enormous advantage for the americans
and arguably this one is one they couldn't have won without was aid from other foreign nations
primarily from france the french aided financially to pay for supplies as well as sending close to 12
000 french troops to support the americans as well as sending french naval forces to support
the americans lastly though and probably the most important advantage for the americans was
that they were fighting to save their homes and fighting for their freedom they weren't fighting
for you know a king or because a government had sent them to fight they were fighting because
they believed in what they were fighting for and that made them a formidable force despite all
of their disadvantages so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you