1. American Revolution British Strengths and Weaknesses
Hand Out
American Revolution British Strengths and Weaknesses
British Strengths
Monetary wealth
Greatest Navy in the world
Much larger population
Professional Army
Money to buy German Hessian soldiers
American Loyalists
Many Indians sided with British against American settlers
British Weaknesses
Soldiers had to be stationed in Ireland
France was looking for an opportunity to fight Britain.
Inept British government
Lack of will to fight colonists by citizens
Top tier generals and soldiers not sent to America
British had to conquer the colonists.
Poor communication between London and generals.
America’s large area
Unit 2

2. American Revolution American Strengths and Weaknesses
Great leaders – George Washington
Possible foreign aid and diplomacy – Benjamin Franklin
Received French support in 1778
Excellent European Officers.
Marquis de Lafayette (helped ally French and trapped Br. at Yorktown)
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (trained militia at Valley Forge).
Fighting defensively
Guerilla Warfare
Self-sustaining agriculturally
Moral advantage – just cause
American Weaknesses
Badly organized and historically disunified colonies
Sectional jealousy between colonies
Economic difficulties. No metallic currency resulted in worthless paper Continentals and high inflation
Few manufactured military supplies
American profiteers sold to British and raised prices.
Poorly trained and Unreliable militia
Many Loyalists and apathetic colonies, only a minority were selfless Patriots.
Unit 2