General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Supplies of cognac have been loaded onto the vessel using strictly traditional methods... [View all]malthaussen
(17,195 posts)Another way to look at it is that Sir Thomas Graves was a nincompoop, since the Royal Navy won decisively a few years later at the Saintes, under different leaders. And it is worth noting that some of the best minds in Britain thought the Caribbean sugar islands to be more valuable property than the American colonies, in which they were right short-term. Nobody in the 18th century had the vision to forsee the US's unprecedented conquest of the entire continent.
Which is not to undervalue the contribution made by the French, who spent most of the 18th century trying to defeat Britain and ultimately failed. The US is quite fortunate that our Revolution was a useful gambit in the struggle for European hegemony. But while Lafayette may have been somewhat of a radical Progressive (he commanded the National Guard in the French Revolution, after all), most of his fellow aristocrats didn't give a fig for Liberte, Egalite, and Fraternite. It's kind of interesting that we largely owe our Republic to the success of one bunch of royalists against another bunch of royalists.
-- Mal