The Evolution of American Warfare: From Colonial Conflicts to a Modern Military

Posted on Aug 18, 2024 in History

Chapter 1: The First American Way of War

1. What were the obvious differences in the “clash of cultures”? Explain why.

1. Ideas about military service, purpose, and practice.

  • Europe – well-trained & equipped militia – use of technology that was appropriate for European style of warfare (pikes, matchlock, and flintlock muskets)
  • Native Americans – would not be drawn into European styles of warfare – use of stealthy, guerilla warfare

2. European conquest vs. Native American code of honor

  • European pitched battles that ended with conquering land, low casualties, and little destruction
  • Native American warfare included the whole society that entailed righting a perceived wrong or forcing tributes from weaker tribes.

3. Codes of Honor – Torture

  • a. Europeans avoided the use of torture, but still relished in it
  • b. Native Americans in NE ritually tortured and killed male POWs
  • c. Served 2 purposes: allowed for emotional release of restrained aggression and allowed captives to save face by accepting their cruel fate
  • d. Alternative to torture – adoption into victorious tribe

2. What are five conclusions we can draw from the “First American Way of War”?

  • Native Americans slowly recognized that war with colonists meant war to the death
  • To have a chance at survival, they too had to burn and destroy as the colonists did
  • Militias worked locally, but colonial cooperation was needed for expeditionary forces.
  • Colonies used political fissures against Native Americans
  • Transformed European concepts into American Way of War
  • Emphasized destruction and annihilation of non-combatants and combatants
  • Overblown sense that citizen soldier was less threatening to personal liberties
  • Conflict in colonies will be the emphasis of empirical warfare between England and France.

3. How did the militia serve the North American colonies?

  • Militia were only concerned about local defense
  • Militias became socially organized agents that were linked by religion (New England)
  • Militia became more of a police force to maintain the internal order of the colony, rather than a source of national defense.
  • In the southern colonies, militias evolved into slave patrols
  • Militia served as a training mechanism as the manpower reservoir for colonial expeditionary forces

Chapter 2 – The Colonies and Wars for Empire

1. Following King William’s War what were the five aspirations for an English Empire?

  • Cannot live with heavy debt and be a strong power
  • Intra-colonial cooperation needed to preserve colonies integrity
  • More security in NA
  • French have got to go from NA by force or no force
  • Costs of fighting France in Europe and NA was leaving colonists feeling vulnerable against the French – self-defense!

2. What were the differences between the Great War for Empire and the previous three wars (William’s, Anne’s, and George’s) for empire?

1) In the previous 3, the colonies provided the bulk of manpower, material, financial support, and leadership.

  • FIW or 7YW was fought by professional regulars who took the lead.

2) In the previous 3, battles fought in NA were mere sideshows to the Continental operations in Europe

  • North America was the primary theater of this war.
  • Scale of this war dwarfed all of the previous three conflicts.

3) Colonial forces continued to fight their traditional style of guerilla warfare

  • The European professional armies warred in European style of siege warfare.

4) No clear winner in the previous 3 wars, wars were ended because each was about to lose, so they called for a truce.

  • This conflict will produce a clear and triumphant victor!

Chapter 3 – Independence and the Birth of a National Military

1) How does the British Empire not lose/win this war?

  • Finish it quickly before it spreads to the rest of the colonies
  • Contain it in New England (Containment) – They Failed
  • Need to destroy Continental Army was their only logistical play
  • Base Ops were too far away; war moved too slow, supplies were strung out over large distances – Americans were quick to pounce
  • Both (Britain and American Revolutionaries) needed to win the support of the unaligned colonists (1/3 supported independence, 1/3 were loyal) – need that other 1/3

2) The British surrendered. Explain why they surrendered.

  • Logistical Challenges – Unfamiliar American interior, no coherent strategy, and poor leadership
  • Never convinced that 1/3 nonaligned Americans, as well as, convincing the 1/3 loyal to GB to join them- most were alienated by bumbling policies and inept commanders
  • American localism, popularity among the population, and Continental Army
  • France
  • George Washington was able to develop a European-style army and adapt it to the American-style of warfare to face the British on its own terms
  • Washington’s ability to place national interest over self-interests that had been the tradition of the American Colonies

Chapter 4: The Young Nation and its Military Challenged

1. Why did the United States not go to war after the Chesapeake-Leonard Affair?

  • Jefferson could not agree to war – this is definitely an economic reason, but also goes against the principle of unhindered foreign trade. Why didn’t we go to war?
  • Army and Navy were too small to defend the US against either GB or France
  • Poor state of American military preparedness
  • Lack of national strategy and clear policy objectives

2. What made molding an effective defense policy so difficult? Give examples for each.

Molding effective defense policy proved extremely difficult:

  • Domestic political issues (Whiskey Rebellion)
  • Regional interest (Battle of Tippecanoe)
  • Republican ideals (Agricultural economy and militia)
  • Military capabilities (Small Army and Navy vs. empirical powers of Europe)

Chapter 5: Second War of Independence

1. Why did President James Madison deliver a message to Congress on June 1, 1812 declaring that a State of War existed with Great Britain?

  • The Impressment of American Citizens into the Royal Navy
  • The unlawful search and seizure of American ships, Orders in Council
  • Assumed British agitation of Native Americans in the west
  • Had to go to war to defend sovereignty

2. How did the political and military objectives of the United States line up in the Treaty of Ghent?

  • The Impressment of American Citizens into the Royal Navy; No more Impressments
  • The unlawful search and seizure of American ships, Orders in Council; American shipping will no longer be harassed
  • Assumed British agitation of Native Americans in the west; No more British agitation of Native American Indians

3. How did the experience of two wars for independence define and change American national interest? What military strategy would be used to achieve and maintain our national interests objectives? How will the military be at the forefront of future national movements?

  • Experience defined American national interests: Sea-borne trade, territorial integrity and expansion, and defense of liberty at home, and how the nation approached military affairs and warfare
  • Experience changed the ideological landscape that governed the way the American military would be organized, manned and used
  • Military strategy to achieve and maintain these objectives included fortified coastal defense, established navy, peacetime army of some size, and the reliance upon a militia to expand both the Army and Navy in times of danger
  • Military will be at the forefront of national movements: Manifest Destiny, Market Revolution, beginnings of industrialization, and the expansion of Democracy in America

Chapter 6: Agents of Empire

1. How did the United States military grow during a relative time of peace after the War of 1812 and the Mexican War?

  • America’s compulsion toward expansion only took place because of the organized and disciplined American Military
  • The Army and the Navy explored and mapped tens of thousands of miles adding scientific knowledge, opening doors to trade, and building a sense of prestige and professionalism within the American Military
  • Frontier constabulary duties and the unpleasant task of the Indian removal
  • The American military could and would be used for tasks other than National security – Flexibility!

Chapter 7: Toward a Professional Military

1. How did the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars affect future military affairs around the world?

  • Nationalism – obligated all citizens to join
  • Huge armies conquering the Euro continent
  • Breaking the enemy’s will to fight –difficult to achieve by two nationalistic nations
  • Warfare was year-round; consumed resources; conscription = manpower to maintain army
  • Napoleon Bonaparte became the master practitioner of this new style of warfare
  • Napoleon’s strategy required him to sacrifice large casualties of his own
  • Napoleon’s organization & placement of divisions before and during battle gave him strategic advantage – American military officers took notes
  • Napoleon’s way of war gave birth to modern military thought

2. Contrast the differences between Antoine Henri Jomini and Karl von Clausewitz principles of war. Jomini’s Four Primary Rules

  • Rules required forethought and planning
  • Bring mass against a decisive point of the enemy’s forces in a climactic battle, thus achieving military victory
  • Key to Jominian thought was the idea of maintaining the initiative; dominating the battlefield through superior maneuver, the enemy would capitulate without a battle of annihilation
  • Departing from Napoleon, gaining territory, not annihilation of the enemy would achieve the overall political objectives of the war

Karl von Clausewitz – Vom Krieg (On War)

  • Understood war as a violent act not subject to a set of strategic principles
  • Factors beyond human control -“Fog” and “Friction” – determined the course of war
  • War was a “continuation” of diplomacy – a tool used to force an adversary to concede – destroy the enemy’s and their use of force rather than taking territory; war was not an end in itself but rather a means to an end
  • “Trinity” – 3 forces that determine a war’s development: VIOLENCE; CHANCE; REASON

Chapter 8 – The Civil War and Reconstruction

1. What was the Emancipation Proclamation? What did the Emancipation Proclamation proclaim? What was the Emancipation Proclamation based on? What didn’t the Emancipation Proclamation do? What did it do to the war effort in the north?

  • Was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States.
  • It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time.
  • The Proclamation was based on the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress.
  • The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not outlaw slavery, and did not grant citizenship to the ex-slaves (called freedmen).
  • It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union.

2. How did the Union use the Navy to carry out the Anaconda Plan?

  • Control the boundary states of KY and MO, as well as the new state of KS – Important to control MS River and tributaries (OH, TN & Cumberland Rivers)
  • Blockade of South – Control New Orleans
  • Anaconda Plan – destroy army (navy), and slowly starve the rest of the South
  • Blockade all Southern ports – no commerce or supplies in or out – Majorly stressed out Southern Economy
  • River Operations coordinated with Union Army – 1st time Army will be supported by Navy gunboats during land battles
  • Secure all Southern ports for Union Army use

Chapter 9 – Becoming a Modern Military

1. What did the Army and Navy do between the years 1865-1914?

ARMY

  • Returned to frontier duty – long, brutal conflict with Native Americans
  • Put down domestic disorders
  • Fought the Spanish in a brief conflict that exposed our army’s inability to fight a war on foreign soil
  • Continued to professionalize

NAVY

  • Struggled to incorporate modern technology
  • Planning for defense of U.S. and new colonial possessions
  • Dewey will destroy the Spanish Fleet in Manila Bay, Philippines within hours
  • Congressional support advanced the Navy: Building a modern battleship that rivaled Great Britain

2. Why was the Spanish American War a major turning point in American military and diplomatic history?

  • U.S. enforced the Monroe Doctrine
  • Unquestioned master of the Western Hemisphere
  • Exhibited its new naval strength
  • Exposed weaknesses in mobilization and preparedness in the Army
  • Gained possessions in the Caribbean and western Pacific
  • Solidified its role as a major player in the Far East