Double Jeopardy, Parts 8-9

"Double Jeopardy, Parts 8-10" by Chris OakleyPlease click the

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Author says: this thread was inspired by one of Dominic Sandbrook's articles in New Statesman. To view guest historian's comments on this thread please visit the Today in Alternate History web site. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

the Continental Army liberated Boston from British occupation in one of the Americans' first major strategic victories of the Revolutionary War.

Boston LiberatedThe victory came about partly as a result of a ruse devised by Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington in which fake cannons were set up in the countryside overlooking the city to convince the British they were about to come under artillery bombardment; seeking to get out of the line of fire, the British forces began re-deploying to less exposed positions and promptly walked into an ambush set by American infantry.

By 10:30 that night most of the British occupation forces had either been killed or captured and the rest were fleeing to New York City; within a year, New York too would be in colonial hands as the Revolution gathered steam and volunteers from all parts of the original thirteen states-- along with veterans of the Quebec Rebellion - continued to swell the ranks of the Continental Army. By 1777 French regular troops were fighting side by side with Washington's men, tipping the balance for keeps in favor of the Americans. The Revolutionary War would end in August of 1779 with the surrender at Yorktown, Virginia of the remnants of the British Army's North American expeditionary force.

On August 16^th 1776,

on this day the Continental Navy achieved what up to that time was its most significant victory of the American Revolution, sinking the British man-of-war HMS Romulus off the coast of Maine just as Romulus was about to make an attempt to land a detachment of Royal Marines near the city of Bangor.

Sinking of the RomulusWord of the sinking reached the Continental Congress in Philadephia on July 3rd, prompting its members to pass a resolution declaring July 4th a day of celebration in honor of the event. In the post-Revolutionary War era July 4th would be established by law and custom as America's official Independence Day.

The sinking of HMS Romulus also acted as a catalyst for the intervention of France and Spain on the American colonists' side in the later stages of the Revolution.

On April 8^th 1775,

the first contingent of French regular army troops arrived in America to support the Continental Army in its war for American indepedence from Great Britain; these soldiers were dispatched to the fledging United States under the terms of an alliance treaty that had been signed in Paris a few months earlier.

French Reinforcements ArriveThe chief architect of that treaty, Benjamin Franklin, had already been famous for more than a decade thanks to his book Poor Richard's Almanac and his scientific experiments on electricity -- but the treaty itself would make him an immortal figure in American history. After the Revolutionary War ended in 1779, Franklin would return to Paris to establish the permanent American embassy for France.

With the brief and highly conspicuous exception of an estrangement during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, the Franco-American alliance would continue to endure for generations after the Revolution. In the Great European War of 1914-17, thousands of American troops fought in France's defense against the aggression of Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany; during the Pacific War of the early 1940s French naval power helped ensure America's final victory over Japan.

Author says to view guest historian's comments on this thread please visit the Today in Alternate History web site.

Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.