Worldwide War
The 1782 siege of
Gibraltar by French
and Spanish forces
refracted Britain’s
conflict in America.
JUNE 2019 67
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for genocide against indigenes with whom
they were warring.
Subtitle aside, God thoroughly examines 50
crucial years of New England history, using
Williams and the Narragansett as a reference
point from which to portray a much broader
range of events. —James Baresel is a free-
lance writer living in Virginia.
The American
Revolution:
A World War
Edited by David K.
Allison & Larrie D.
Ferriero
Smithsonian,
2018; $29.95
going
global
Popular accounts have America gaining
independence by beating Britain, the world’s
greatest military power, with some help from
France. Early histories told the story with a fair
degree of accuracy. By the 19th century, how-
ever, even distinguished American scholars
were writing a patriotic narrative that mostly
ignored fighting outside North America. In
fact, the Revolution was a genuine global con-
flict in which Britain fought alone, an often
unfamiliar but fascinating story recounted in
these 15 essays by Europeans, Americans, and
one Indian historian.
Charmed by Ben Franklin and encouraged
by the 1777 British surrender at Saratoga,
France declared war in 1778, followed by Spain
in 1779, recasting British priorities.
Number one was fending off an invasion
France and Spain planned but never executed.
Almost as critical was protecting British com-
merce—West Indian sugar islands and India
were more valuable than the rebel colonies—
and military bases like Gibraltar, which Spain
immediately besieged.
We dismiss Spain, which ruled North Amer-
ica west of the Mississippi, as France’s bum-
bling junior partner, but the Spanish historian
makes a case that Spain gave a good account
of itself. Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish gover-
nor of Louisiana, kept Britain out of the Mis-
sissippi, defeating several invading expedi-
tions. He captured Mobile in 1780 and
Pensacola in 1781, major British defeats that
left the Royal Navy no bases on the Gulf Coast.
American readers accept that French histo-
rians credit their homeland for our indepen-
dence. However, they may blanch at his
latter-day countrymen’s disrespect for Lafay-
ette, dismissed as an energetic self-promoter
who charmed Washington, burnished his rep-
utation in unreliable memoirs, and, after an
iconizing 1824-25 national tour, became Amer-
ica’s favorite revolutionary Frenchman.
Eclipsed as a major sea power, Holland
remained commercially prosperous, trading
energetically with the rebel colonies until 1780,
when an exasperated Britain declared war,
devastated the Dutch merchant fleet, and cap-
tured many Dutch colonies.
Even after Cornwallis’s 1781 surrender, the
siege of Gibraltar continued, and major sea
battles took place. French and British fleets
fought to a draw off India but in the West
Indies France, despite capturing many British
sugar islands, lost. Superficially, the 1783 peace
benefited France and Spain—France got back
many privileges and colonies lost in the Seven
Years War; Spain regained Florida—but both
nations were exhausted and bankrupt.
Losing the American colonies rankled Brit-
ain’s banking system, but the economy han-
dled the war’s huge cost. By conflict’s end the
Royal Navy ruled the seas. Britain soon had a
bigger empire than before and the 19th century
proved a happy time. Mildly humbling for
Americans, this volume offers good, insightful
history. —Mike Oppenheim writes in Lexing-
ton, Kentucky