Following years of failed negotiations, the tensions between the colonies and Great Britain
exploded into war.
After King George III rejected the Olive Branch Petition and sent additional troops to North
America, a full-scale war with Britain became unavoidable.
Many expected a quick end to the hostilities, and few Patriots agreed with John Adams when
he wrote, "We shall have a long and bloody war to go through."
With the escalation of conflict on the horizon, how did the two sides stack up against one
another?
The Revolutionary War was a David v. Goliath type of match up.
Great Britain had a population of over 8 million people, while the colonies had a little over
2 million.
Of those 2 million, only about 175,000 could be put into military service.
The British also had an extreme advantage when it came to the economy.
Britain had the wealth of a world empire to draw from, while the colonies' revenue had
always depended on trade with Great Britain.
The British spent around 12 million pounds a year to fight the war, while the colonies
had to rely on loans from European countries such as France, Spain, and the Netherlands,
to fund their war efforts.
Great Britain had the strongest navy in the world in 1776, with more than 130 warships
known as ships of the line.
In contrast, the American colonies had no navy whatsoever.
This lack of armed vessels led to each colony commissioning small ships to protect their
coastal waters.
The Continental Congress did commission a navy in 1775, but the Continental Navy never
launched any ships of the line, and the small vessels that were built were used primarily
for commerce raiding.
In addition, Great Britain had a professional, well experienced military that was armed with
the finest weapons available.
American soldiers, consisting of volunteers and militia, lacked experience, and weapons,
munitions, and food were almost always in short supply.
However, the Americans did have some advantages.
First, the colonists were fighting for a cause they believed in.
British soldiers were fighting because it was their job, while Americans were fighting
for their freedom.
Another advantage the colonists had was the fact that American forces were fighting on
their own ground.
They knew the terrain, roads, mountain passes, and swamp lands of the colonies.
British soldiers were largely foreign to the environment, and supplies and troops had to
be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.
A third factor that ultimately led to a large colonial advantage was the fighting styles
implemented by the opposing armies.
British soldiers had trained in the traditional firing line methods used by European armies,
but many colonial soldiers were frontiersmen accustomed to hunting small prey.
This made them really good marksmen.
By the midpoint of the war, this advantage led to a radical change in the way American
soldiers were trained.
One final advantage, and perhaps the greatest of them all, was leadership.
Up and down the ranks, the colonies had capable men who knew what they were doing.
While most British commanders had extensive military training, their generals often disliked
one another, held vendettas, and frequently disagreed with each other.
Also, in the British Army, where a man could buy a commission for himself or his son, it
was customary to appoint and promote officers based on family ties and titles of nobility,
loyalty to the Crown, and political connections.
In contrast, the Continental Congress and George Washington promoted officers based
on individual merit and performance on the battlefield.