Atlantic Politics, Military Strategy and the French and Indian War

278 Pages·2016·3.557 MB·English

by  Richard Hall (auth.)

Atlantic Politics, Military
Strategy and the French
and Indian War
Richard Hall
War, Culture and Society, 1750 –1850
War, Culture and Society, 1750−1850
Series Editors
Rafe Blaufarb
Tallahassee, USA
Alan Forrest
York, UK
Karen Hagemann
Chapel Hill, USA

Richard   Hall
Atlantic Politics,
Military Strategy and
the French and
Indian War
Richard   Hall
Department of History and Classics
University of Swansea
Swansea, United Kingdom
War, Culture and Society, 1750–1850
ISBN 978-3-319-30664-3 ISBN 978-3-319-30665-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30665-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943520
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P
REFACE
ATLANTIC POLITICS, MILITARY ST RATEGY AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
SUMMARY
It was the year of 1755 that truly marked the point at which events in
America ceased to be considered subsidiary affairs in the great interna-
tional rivalry between two of the foremost colonial powers of the eigh-
teenth century, Great Britain and France. Events prior to 1755, centered
around the Ohio Valley (a strategically vital region of North America), had
seen Britain’s sovereign claims in this region truncated, as the French built
a series of forts designed to hem in its rival’s colonies along the Atlantic
seaboard, preventing any future expansion into North America’s lucrative
interior.
This book is dedicated to an examination of Braddock Campaign of
1755, a component segment of the grand “Braddock Plan” devised in
London and guided principally by the aggressive predispositions of the
Duke of Cumberland. It was a strategy aimed at driving the French from
all of the contested regions they occupied in North America. Rather than
being an archetypal military-historical analysis of the defeat of General
Edward Braddock on the banks of the Monongahela, this work will argue
that the failure of that ill-starred offi cer and the wider “Braddock Plan”
should be viewed as one that embodied military, political and diplomatic
v
vi PREFACE
divergences and weaknesses within the British Atlantic World of the
eighteenth century. These, ultimately, were factors that hinted at the
growing schisms which would see the American colonies break from the
motherland in the 1770s. Such an interpretation is to move away from
the conclusion so often suggested that Braddock’s defeat was a distinctly,
almost uniquely, “British catastrophe.” Essentially, it is my belief that the
application of British Atlantic studies—and indeed “New Military” histo-
riography—to an interpretation of the failure of Edward Braddock (and
the Braddock Plan) allows this strategy, and its overall outcome, to be
interpreted in a different vein than has hitherto been possible.
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No book or scholarly article is written in isolation and I, like so many of
my peers before me, have had considerable help and guidance at various
stages during the compilation of this work. First, I owe an enormous debt
of gratitude to Dr. Steven Sarson, now of the Université de Lyon, whose
advice has been so incredibly useful in the formulation of the major prem-
ise of this work. Dr. Sarson’s assistance has, in reality, been instrumental in
improving this book on instances too numerous to count and his prompt,
thoughtful deliberations are greatly appreciated.
My sincere thanks also extend to Dr. Leighton James, Associate
Professor of History at Swansea University, who, sharing a passion for
eighteenth-century military history, has provided many an interesting
conversation concerning the direction this work has taken. His knowledge
of the fi eld has also been a source of some very useful material and for that
I am, once again, extremely grateful.
Research assistance has also been gratefully received from Hugh
Alexander at the National Archives (UK); Catherine T. Wood at the
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library and staff at the
William L. Clements Library Michigan.
There are, of course, many other debts of appreciation that I would
also like to express, but these are too numerous to mention here. Finally,
therefore, I must extend my deepest gratitude to my parents, whose
encouragement and support has always been so profoundly appreciated
over the course of the composition of this book.
vii

C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction, Book Structure and the Context
of Historiography 1
2 The Causes of the French and Indian War and 
the Origins of the “Braddock Plan”: Rival
Colonies and Their Claims to the Disputed Ohio 21
3 Metropolitan Intervention: Britain’s Strategy
for a New Colonial War 51
4 “Stupid Brutes Led by an Eighteenth-C entury
Colonel Blimp?” The British Army of the 
Eighteenth Century 97
5 Edward Braddock in America: Provincial Politics,
Indian Alliances and the Prolonged and Arduous
March to the Monongahela 145
6 The Battle of the Monongahela: A Clash
of Military Cultures 185
ix