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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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A Few Bloody Noses
"We
meant well to the Americans—just to punish them with a few bloody noses, and
then to make laws for the happiness of both countries," said George III.
The ensuing uprising led to the creation of the United States, the most
powerful country in the modern world. Robert Harvey, who wrote
‘Global Disorder’ and other books on current events, first came to my
attention by writing a new and controversial history of the American Revolution.
If Harvey is correct, the Americans and British mainly did not want a
war, but elements on both sides deliberately started one for their own gain.
Misunderstanding, contempt and an exaggerated devotion to the law turned
a dangerous situation into a disastrous one.
Harvey’s central claim, intriguingly, was that it was the French who
won the war – the Americans merely managing not to lose. Harvey is scathing on the
political developments in America after the war broke out.
The revolution’s congress, which began life as an ‘all-are-equal’
committee, soon appeared to have had one spy, one death and one other loss, soon
afterwards being hijacked by the people who normally ran America.
Realising that they could suffer in an America dominated by levellers,
the upper/middle class Americans took over the congress, and handled a
counter-revolution in style. Nothing
illustrates their hypocrite nature more than their secret contacts with the
British, their crushing of the whiskey rebellion, their treatment of their
solders and their treatment of their slaves.
Lord Dunmore, a British officer, had the bright idea of forming an
ex-slave regiment, which provoked howls of outrage from congress.
Clearly, American ideals of life and liberty applied only to themselves
and to Americans they could not get away with not applying them to, such as most
of the white population. The
Americans never gave Blacks and Indians any incentive to be good citizens of the
United States. Harvey is half-admiring,
half-contemptuous of Washington. While
acknowledging his political skills, he notes that Washington only avoided
disaster at New York by sheer luck and was probably chosen as a compromise
candidate. On the other hand,
Washington showed real concern for his troops and kept the American army in
being. Harvey also exposes British
incompetence. The British
government never understood the American system that they had given birth to and
attempted to run it from a distance. The
British also choose commanders on questionable social (high birth) and political
grounds, often managing to place the wrong commander in the wrong place.
Howe, for example, either permitted the American forces to escape New
York or was supremely incompetent. Burgoyne
failed to learn from Arnold’s defeat at Quebec and repeated his mistakes, with
a far worse outcome. The British
may have been superior to American troops in open battle, but they were often
mishandled by their lords and masters. The entry of the French
into the war altered British priorities. The
American colonies were not as important, any longer, than the need to protect
Britain and defeat the French in a worldwide war. The British withdrew from their most exposed conquests and
shifted forces to fight the French and the Spanish. The British were convinced that they were over-extended and
acted to minimise that risk. Unluckily
for the British, a promising strategy was interrupted by the French cutting off
the sea-lanes at the worst moment and the British surrendered at Yorktown.
The British attempted to surrender to the French, they, at least, knew
who had beaten them. Despite still having considerable forces in America, the
British chose to end the war at that point.
Harvey briefly explores the
years in America after the war. The
struggle between states and the congress for power was worsened by the need to
find money to pay troops and local rebellions, harking back to the beginning of
the revolution. The dangers of
military rule or disintegration loomed great.
Washington emerged here in his greatness, after refusing the crown of
America, he convinced people to form the United States – a victory for the
conservative upper class – as a federal union.
Issues such as slavery were papered over, they would re-emerge in 1850.
Horrified, the Adams brothers and John Hancock boycotted the convention.
Harvey reveals
that the experience of Vietnam is not an isolated fact.
Determined locals, controlling vast territory (or having an available
sanctuary) - the Carolina swamps, for example - can play havoc on a professional
army with doctrines of combat, rules of engagement, and extended supply lines,
especially when that local force has the element of time.
In addition, this brings up public opinion at home.
The text has a wealth of documents from the period demonstrating a
situation not unlike that the Americans experienced in the sixties and
seventies. The slow turn of public opinion, the mounting cost in men,
money and morale. It was all there
then.
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