DC -- Institute of World Politics -- Event: Larrie D. Ferreiro ("Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain"):
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- Description of Pictures: Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain
by The Institute of World Politics
Author Larrie D. Ferreiro will discuss "Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain."
Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History
Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award
The remarkable untold story of how the American Revolution's success depended on substantial military assistance provided by France and Spain, and places the Revolution in the context of the global strategic interests of those nations in their fight against England.
In this groundbreaking, revisionist history, Larrie Ferreiro shows that at the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90 percent of all guns used by the Americans, and they sent soldiers and sailors by the thousands to fight and die alongside the Americans, as well as around the world.
Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.
About the author: Larrie D. Ferreiro is the 2017 Pulitzer finalist for History, for his book "Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It". He received his PhD in the History of Science and Technology from Imperial College London. He teaches history and engineering at George Mason University in Virginia and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He has served for over thirty-five years in the US Navy, US Coast Guard and Department of Defense, and was an exchange engineer in the French Navy. He lives with his wife and their sons in Virginia.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- FERR_200115_016.JPG: "Foreign powers could not be expected to acknowledge us, till we had acknowledged ourselves... as an independent nation."
-- John Adams, 1776
* America was committed to fight a war for independence
* It could only win with help from France and Spain
* Neither nation would take sides in a British civil war; America had to be seen as a sovereign nation
* The Declaration of Independence was, in fact, an engraved invitation asking France and Spain to join America in the fight
- FERR_200115_047.JPG: Larrie D. Ferreiro
- FERR_200115_055.JPG: "Only the future American Revolution will consign England to a state of weakness."
-- Duc de Choiseul, 1767
* Aftermath of the Seven Years' War (1754-1763)
* French / Spanish (Bourbon) alliance and policy of revanche
* French and Spanish spies in America
- FERR_200115_077.JPG: "The world wondered that we so seldom fired a cannon; we could not afford it."
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1777
* America had no foundries, no powder mills, little money and only a few gunsmiths
* Covert aid came from France and Spain
* Merchants were front men
* They expected to be repaid in American tobacco, but rarely were
- FERR_200115_089.JPG: "Unless these [Beaumarchais] arms had been thus timely furnished to the Americans, Burgoyne would have made an easy march to Albany."
-- Caleb Stark, 1777
* Beaumarchais' ships arrive April 1777
* 20,000 muskets, cannon, powder
* Just in time to supply 15,000 Americans at Saratoga
- FERR_200115_107.JPG: "There is one hundred times more enthusiasm for this revolution in a single Parisian cafe than in all the colonies combined."
-- Louis Lebegue Duportail, 1777
* Volunteers came to fight the British
* They also made the American cause their own
* Washington came to depend upon these "immigrants who got the job done"
- FERR_200115_112.JPG: "A great number of French officers were in the action... showed so much bravery... in general behaved extremely well."
-- Newspaper account of the Battle of Brandywine, 1777
* Initial distrust of French volunteers: "So many spies in our camp" (Nathanael Greene, May 1777)
* Battle of Brandywine proved their trial by fire
* After that, foreign soldiers openly accepted
* Greene later relied on Steuben and Lafayette in Southern campaign
- FERR_200115_129.JPG: "We must either abandon America to its own devices or courageously and effectively come to its side."
-- Comte de Vergennes, 1777
* Despite Saratoga, America likely to lose the war
* Reunited British empire would be a threat to French sugar colonies in Caribbean
* Only French-American alliance could prevent this danger; treaty signed February 1778
* Spain still had treasure fleet at sea, could not yet risk war with Britain
- FERR_200115_132.JPG: "This pile of rocks called Gibraltar, which gives them nothing except worries and expenses."
-- Conde de Floridablanca, 1778
* Floridablanca proposed to negotiate a truce between France and Great Britain in exchange for Gibraltar
* Britain refused, thereby sacrificing America for "this pile of rocks"
* Spain declares war on Britain in April 1779
* Allied French and Spanish forces prepare for battle, changing the war from a regional conflict to global conflagration
* "If we are saved, France and Spain must save us" (Alexander Hamilton)
- FERR_200115_154.JPG: "One cannot imagine a more majestic and imposing sight than over 100 French and Spanish ships, but they held more than 8,000 gravely ill."
-- Chevalier de Mautort, 1779
* Invasion of Britain was centerpiece of Bourbon campaign
* 150 ships, 30,000 troops
* Dysentery epidemic forces withdrawal
* French navy sends John Paul Jones around Britain as a distraction
- FERR_200115_180.JPG: "He who has honor and valor, follow me."
-- Bernando de Galvez, 1781
* Galvez launches attacks on British Florida
* Captures Pensacola in May 1781 with joint Spanish-French force
* With Spain ruling the Gulf of Mexico, French can commit full force to Yorktown
- FERR_200115_192.JPG: "The Comte de Grasse stands six foot four, and six foot five on days of battle."
-- Anonymous, 1781
- FERR_200115_195.JPG: "I have the honor to inform Congress that a reduction of the British Army... is most happily effected."
-- George Washington, 1781
* Battle of Yorktown had equal numbers of American and French troops
* British saw Yorktown as French victory:
-- Most of siege cannon were French
-- French officers directed the battle
-- Twice as many French soldiers died
- FERR_200115_207.JPG: "It is not in the English character to give us so easily."
-- Comte de Vergennes, 1781
Yorktown was not the end of the war
* Anglo-Dutch War 1780-1784
* Mysorean War in India 1780-1784
* Capture of Minorca 1782
* Siege of Gibraltar 1779-1783
- FERR_200115_217.JPG: "What is the good of a newborn babe?"
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1783
* Peace treaties signed at Versailles and Paris, September 2, 1783
* From 1776 to 1783, over 200,000 French and Spanish fought in the war that saved American independence
* America could never have won the war without France, and France could never have fought the war without Spain
* TAKEAWAY: United States was born as the centerpiece of an international coalition, which together worked to defeat a common adversary
- FERR_200115_278.JPG: Backup slides:
Q: So if Lafayette wasn't the most important figure in this story, why did he become so famous?
A: He made a Grand Tour of America, and then he died.
- FERR_200115_284.JPG: "Lafayette, we are here!"
-- Charles E. Stanton, 1917
* Lafayette's visit to America 1824-1825
* Lafayette was seen as "the hero of two worlds"
* In WWI, Pershing's American Expeditionary Force "honored our obligation" to Lafayette and the French-American alliance
- FERR_200115_293.JPG: "La Fayette" or "Lafayette" in English language books, 1770-1900
- Wikipedia Description: The Institute of World Politics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Institute of World Politics (IWP) is an independent, regionally accredited graduate school of national security and international affairs. Founded in 1990 and located in Washington, DC, the school focuses on the development of leaders in the intelligence, national security, and diplomatic communities and the teaching of the ethical exercise of statecraft in international relations. Its faculty consists primarily of senior scholar-practitioners from the intelligence, national security, and diplomatic communities. It currently offers three Master of Arts degrees: Statecraft and National Security Affairs; Statecraft and World Politics; and Strategic Intelligence Studies. It also offers Certificates of Graduate Study and continuing education courses. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and licensed by the District of Columbia Education Licensure Commission.
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