Term
| How did the British plan to win at the beginning of the war? Understand the strategies and the mistakes that prevented this from occuring. |
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Definition
- Strategy:
- To capture New York (rendez-vous at Albany)
- cut off New England from the rest of the colonies (leave them vulnerable)
- Mistakes:
- Burgoyne moved too slowly and allowed Americans to stop him
- St Leger retreated in the Mohawk River Valley and never made it to Albany
- Howe ditched everyone and decided to go to Pennsylvania to capture Washington and the Second Continental Congress which rendered unsuccessful
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Term
| Why did the British move the war to the southern region? What strategies did the Americans utilize at the time? What was its effect on the war, its ultimate outcome and on the British? |
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Definition
- Why:
- Because most of the Loyalists were concentrated in the south so the British assumed that they would hold any territory gained
- Strategies:
- Guerilla fighting (see Guerrilla in section 2)
- knowing the territory (see Nathanael Greene in section 1)
- Effects:
- It really made it clear that the Americans could take the British successfully
- The fact that it was dragging on the that the British were losing so much convinced British leaders that American independence might not be so bad
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Term
| Why was the French and Spanish assistance so crucial to the American war effort and its ultimate outcome? |
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Definition
- they couldn’t have spread the British so thin without help from the French navy and the Spanish in the southwest
- desperately needed the funding and supplies
- French, Spanish, and Germans helped train American recruits
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Term
| If you were a soldier at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778 would you have quit and why |
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Definition
Wouldn't desert
- I strongly believe in sticking with things I start all the way to the end and I started an enlistement so I should finish it
- Wouldn't leave Washington because I really appreciate his tireless efforts to gain freedom for our nation
- I must have enlisted in the first place because I wanted to bring forth liberty and despite the conditions my opinion remains the same so my actions should remain consistent
Wouldn't reenlist though
- Conditions are unbelievably harsh and in the condition I'm in I'm probably not helping the cause
- I have done all the service I originally signed up for so I'm not ditching or cheating and I helped our nation
- I can still support the cause of liberty without being on its most brutal warfront by rallying people for the cause and writing Congressmen about the horrific conditions of Valley Forge and asking them to send supplies
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