American History

Assuming that the American Revolution was a struggle for the allegiance of the American people, compare how well the strategies and operations of American and British commanders were suited to the nature of the war.

There were several attempts to ensure unity in America and to be able to fight Britain that was a strong Nation with strong economic background and good political system or referred as the Kingdom of Great Britain. In Britain, leadership was based on monarchy common with the royal families and therefore had strong system compared to America. However, it was not easy to take away the control of thirteen colonies from the Great Britain and therefore the thirteen colonies of the Britain had to come together to fight the British Empire (Arbor, 1990).

The colonies of Britain and why they had to come together
The thirteen colonies of Britain were Rhode Island, New York, North Carolina, Hampshire, Virginia, Delaware, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and Georgia. The reason why they had to come together was because the British army was strong and the British government did not allow the colonies to bring forward the names of the representatives in the parliament to air their views and to follow the proceedings in the parliament. This led to animosity among the colonies and even the royal officials were not allowed in the parliament hence felt neglected and none represented (Arbor, 1990).

Product of the forged Unity between the States
The forging of the unity led to the formation of provincial leaders or congress by different states to create another center of power out of the monopoly of the British parliament and to forge new system that was free from British influence. As a result, new crop of leaders emerged to fight with a common objective in gaining independence. After the revolution, political leaders from different states fought to form a strong government which was to be centralized since they were against the form of system that was based in monarchy and they feared that the British form of governance could be entrenched in the newly formed State (USA), (Hamilton, 1987).

They also feared the attack from the well organized army of Britain and to be able to benefit from the struggle and sovereignty that they wanted from the Britain. Centralized government was important in protection of the boundaries of different States from occupation or invasion by foreigners. They had to bring the interest of every state to ensure that the views and the interest of the thirteen States were represented fully unlike the British government that never allowed representatives in their parliamentary sessions. It was also important in ensuring that representation was well catered by protecting or guarding the interest of every State (Mahan, 1987).

War and the strategy
War is not a peaceful demonstration and therefore requires a smart strategy on how to begin the war and to end it without using a lot of resources or putting a lot of energy against an enemy. The success of the war therefore depends on the skills, strategies and the resources available to maintain the soldiers and to protect the wealth and assets of the State, even though the American war on independence was not characterized with a lot of blood shed like world war II or the Gulf War between the Iraqi government and the USA and the allies against the Iraqi inversion in Kuwait, revolutionary war was basically about  on the negotiations, taking side, bargaining and unity of the people between different States.

Strategies
Strategies are part of the war and the American soldiers were favored naturally by natural factors such as distance, terrain and the weather. The British government had a major problem in suppressing the thirteen States since they occupied a big area that required more allocation of funds and required additional soldiers to protect the colonies from coming together against them. Britain had several problems, from manpower to machinery. The coming up of thirteen States meant that more troops were to be involved and the British government had several setbacks on the military since they had to transport more soldiers via the sea which was slow yet the soldiers had to be armed and eat before they could attack the thirteen States, making it more cumbersome to make a positive move against America (Middlekauff, 2001).

Poor communication and distance barrier made it more difficult for the British government to attack the United States. For instance, the distance between London and America was wide across the Atlantic Ocean which made many soldiers to be killed and some were affected greatly as a result of lack of food and clothing during the war. It is therefore worth noting that, despite the organization ability of the British army and the availability of resources, the tactics that the British government employed during the war could not work effectively for them since they even lacked resources and manpower to control or to force their policies in the thirteen colonies.

Things worked well for the thirteen colonies that were against the British rule when France and Spain decided to join the wing against the British. They had to employ another strategy to counter the move but they could not succeed since they had to distribute more soldiers to different places. They had to decentralize their soldiers hence making it more difficult to capture the thirteen colonies plus the two new allies.

The loyalists and the War
The strategies that were later implemented by the British government were meant to maintain the colonies and to maintain loyalty from other groups such as the Howe brothers, Native Americans and the Slaves hence they had to work smart by not loosing the loyalists and not wasting the countrys resources in war that they were not too sure of winning especially after France and Spain joined the war. According to Shy (1990), they had to come up with a smart way of even keeping the colonies by not being too harsh on them. They were smart when they employed Ireland and Scotland in their war to avoid being harsh to the colonies that they believed could be more relevant in economic growth and association in future.

The strategies that were applied by both sides
In 1980, there was a major setback for the two wings. The British army was faced with a lot of challenges following the invasion in New York City. They were shadowed by the American army which migrated from Hudson Highland, an army that stayed in the mountain for more than three years hence the British soldiers could not attack them easily. The Americans used a smart way of attacking the British by fighting in the forest and the British soldiers were not familiar with the terrains of the land making their strategy to work effectively against the British soldiers (Fisher, 2004).

Apart from confusing the warriors, the American government made a place called the West Point as the centre for defensive unit, a place that was not very easy to access due to tight security. However, the British government was smart to use Benedict Arnold to help them in purchasing the West Point. He almost succeeded in 1780 to sell the place but in 1781, the French army beefed up the security at New Port to help the American army counter the British invasion. The British government was keen enough to accept that they were losing the battle, though they could not come out clearly they then decided to attack New York in a feint way that suggested that they were no longer interested in invading America.

Even though they could not marshal the attack properly due to lack of man power and resources, the British government decided to come up with other means of controlling the colonies. In fact, they had a better strategy of stopping the war and embracing dialogue. There was an urgent need by the British government to forge the unity between them and the United States of America after realizing that the war was heading no where and they were wasting a lot of resources in maintaining troops that were not even enough to attack effectively (Weigley, 1973).

In the year 1783, the treaty of Paris was accepted and signed in the same year. It had a great impact on the new constitution since important documents on governance were handed into the former colony and this brought a peaceful atmosphere for the adoption and the operation of the new constitution in the United State of America. It helped to reduce tension on territorial boundaries that had been a stalemate in governance, for instance, Spain and France on the ownership of the Islands such as Minorca and Bahamas Island. As a result, there was peace and good relationship between the two States. It also helped a lot in creation of new terms of agreement among the warring states and promoting conducive atmosphere for political development in the United States of America (Hamilton, 1987).

The new constitution and the role
According to Hamilton (1987), there was an urgent need to come up with a working constitution after independence to define how the government was to operate and to ensure that no State violates the principles behind the new constitution. John Jay and his two friends Robert Livingstone and Gouverneur Morris were acknowledged a lot for coming up with a new constitution that was accepted by the majority. It is worth noting that the draft was more of English laws and never acknowledged most principles that were initially valued before the declaration of independence. The system of governance was almost similar to that of England. However, most of the experts argued that the constitution was drafted by people who had little experience on constitutional matters and were not old enough to understand the deeper meaning of certain ideologies in governance thereby adopting a system that had similar context with the England constitution.

According to Hamilton (1987), the constitution proposed a republican form of governance and the concept was well explained in a more republican form and ignored the democratic principles that were highly valued by some of the delegates during the fight for independence. It is therefore true that most of the people depending on the State of origin were not fully satisfied with the form of governance or system that was proposed in the constitution, but they just had to accept it since there was an urgent need to form a new government that could ensure unity of different States. Some amendments were rather made to ensure that the interests of different States were protected. For instance, the amendments on appointment of the council were necessary in providing a clear guideline on the method of appointment and the requirements for appointments (Hamilton, 1987).

Conclusion
Even though the British Army was well organized, strong and had the experience in war, there were several factors that could not make them wage a successive attack against the thirteen States. The British army was faced with major problems even though most of the people argue that America could not have survived without the support of French Army and the resources. However, the British government was not interested in winning the war but in creating a new way of rule that could benefit both parties and thats why the treaty had to be signed for peaceful co-existence between the United States of America and the British government.