WARS END AND LASTING
EFFECTS
4.4
OBJECTIVES
Assess why the British failed to win the war in
the South.
 Describe how the British were finally defeated.
 List the terms of the peace treaty.
 Explain how the war and the peace treaty
affected minority groups and women.
 Assess the impact of the American Revolution on
other countries.

KEY PARTS
British Invade the South
 The War Ends
 The Revolution Impacts Society
 Revolutionary Ideas Spread

THE BRITISH INVADE THE SOUTH
As the war continued the British expected
Loyalist support in the South.
 The British missed their opportunity of
supporting Loyalist militias, they just continued
to wage conventional war.
 In the South the British won most of the battles
and captured leading seaports.
 When they captured Charleston they also
captured 5,000 Patriot troops.

CONT.
As the British gained momentum in the South,
Spanish forces under Bernardo de Galvez made
key attacks on British forts in the Gulf Coast
region.
 These attacks diverted the British attention and
momentum in the South.

PATRIOTS DRIVE THE BRITISH BACK
In the South Cornwallis did not control the
countryside.
 The Patriots and loyalist militia would fight very
cruel battles, until the Patriots end up crushing
the loyalist militia and execute most of the
prisoners.
 This causes farmers and citizens to start siding
with the Patriots and taking up their cause.

CONT.
This greatly frustrated Cornwallis, because the
Continental Army of the South was small but led
by two great commanders. Nathanael Greene and
Daniel Morgan.
 They inflicted heavy losses on the British at the
Battle of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse in
1781.
 Cornwallis takes his army north to Virginia
despairing of winning the Carolinas, however he
doesn’t realize he is moving into a trap.

THE WAR ENDS
Initially it seemed very unlikely the Patriots
would win the war.
 There were four factors that contributed to their
success.
 First, the British made tactical mistakes because
they initially underestimated the Patriots.
 Second, the British misunderstood the political
nature of the conflict.

CONT.
Third, the Patriots were highly motivated and
benefited from George Washington’s shrewd
leadership.
 Fourth, the Patriots received critical assistance
from France.

CORNWALLIS SURRENDERS.
During the late summer of 1781 Washington
boldly and rapidly marched most of his troops
south.
 He planned to trap Cornwallis’s army at
Yorktown, Virginia.
 For his plan to succeed the French Fleet would
have to arrive to block the British Fleet.

CONT.
Luckily for Washington the French fleet
appeared at just the right moment to block the
mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
 Given the lack of efficient long distance
communication, this coordination was incredible.
 This trapped the British army on land and sea.
 Cornwallis surrendered his army of 8,000 at
Yorktown on October 19.

THE TREATY OF PARIS
The loss of 8,000 soldiers was a crushing blow to
the British war effort.
 The British people were also tired of the taxes
and the casualties.
 Under new administration the British met with
an American Delegation including Benjamin
Franklin, they negotiated a treaty and secured
far more territory than the Patriots had won in
the war.

BRITISH ABANDON THEIR ALLIES
The British left the Indians to fend for
themselves and the colonist moved westward
taking a great sum of land from the Indians.
 The loyalist were victims of mob violence and not
allowed to return to their homes, most moved to
Canada or the British West Indies.

REVOLUTION IMPACTS WOMEN
 Women
gained few political or legal rights as a
result of the war, but they won respect based
on the new conception of women as “republican
mother.”
 This allowed women to speak on their ability
to raise virtuous children that intern become
virtuous citizens.
 In 1776 Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her
husband asking her to “remember the Ladies”
in the new nations laws.
 Adams respected his wife but he dismissed her
CHANGES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS
The winning of the war brought up the point that
slavery seemed inconsistent with the ideals of the
Revolution.
 Patriots spoke of liberty and owned slaves, they
viewed it as natural and understood.
 1778 a Patriot governor of New Jersey confessed
that slavery was utterly inconsistent with the
principles of Christianity and humanity.

CONT.
Slaves began to demand freedom
 Some received it from their masters called
manumission, while others were still trapped in
bondage.
 The north decided to emancipate the slaves and
make them free, however most slave owners sold
their slaves to the South before they could gain
their freedom.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS SPREAD
After the American Revolution the idea of “all
men created equal” spread in England, France,
women, and slaves.
 Over the next three centuries the Patriots’
principles inspired revolutions around the world.
