User:Lord Cornwallis/Plan of 1783

The Plan of 1783 was a military strategy drawn up by the French and Spanish governments to attack several British possessions in North America during 1783 as part of the American War of Independence. A combined army and naval expedition was assembled at Cadiz under the command of the Comte d'Estaing.

by which it was hoped to swiftly end the war. France's ledaers hoped that by attacking Jamaica, New York and Canada they could bring a decisive end to the war. However, it was abandoned amid a stalemate and a negotiated peace that formed the Peace of Paris recognising the independence of the United States but offering France very limitied territorial gains. The French Foreign Minister, Vergennes was releived as he had concerns about the cost of the campaign given France's increasingly strained national finances.

Background

Main articles: France in the American Revolutionary War and Spain in the American Revolutionary War

Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing, the naval commander of the expedition

After the first fighting of the American War in 1775, France began sending secret aid to France had entered the dispute between Britain and its American colonies in 1778 hoping to overturn the European Balance of Power following the

France made it a principal war aim to establish American independence. To accomplish this France sent supplies and loans to the United States to allow it to keep fighting. the series of victories that had led to the fall of British positions at Pensacola, Yorktown and Minorca had raised hopes of a

Yorktown failed to prove devisive and the situation on the American mainland remained a stalemate.

Vergennes retained severe doubts

was assembled at the naval base of Cadiz in Southern Spain.

Battle of the Saintes

Main article: Battle of the Saintes

However, in March 1782 De Grasse's fleet was decisively defeated by a British force led by Lord Rodney in the Battle of the Saintes. De Grasse was captured during the fighting. In the wake of this, the planned Invasion of Jamaica was abandoned.

Cancellation

without the decisive

Bibliography

• Dull, Jonathan. The French Navy and American Independence. Princeton University Press, 1975.
• Grainger, John D. The Battle of Yorktown, 1781.: A Reassessment. The Boydell Press, 2005.
• Morris, Richard B. The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Indpendence. Harper & Row, 1965.
• Unger, Harlow G. Lafayette. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.