Civil War Advantages

If you add up all the manpower Great Britain had over America in the Revolutionary War, it amounts to a 4.5:1 advantage in numbers. By comparison in the American Civil War, the Union had an advantage of 2.5:1 over the Confederacy. Though this sounds like a great advantage, it was not so great in reality. The British had to maintain many troops overseas in America to hold territory, and the American populous had a much higher rate of citizens willing to fight for their Country. The debate over whether the Americans really had any chance to win the War, or whether it was just by pure luck and mistakes by the British has gone on for centuries. When the Revolutionary War began, the Americans had many disadvantages compared to the British. They

They had a large prosperous body of people that could produce food and other supplies, and deliver it to those who needed it. On the other hand Britain mostly imported their goods from overseas, and it took months to reach their solders in America. The colonies were on their home turf, and they weren’t making it easy on the British to take over. When the war first broke out, the Americans were on their own, without any supporting allies. They had to prove themselves before they gained any support from other countries. They eventually gained allies in France and Spain, which also resulting in moving the war to a global scale. On the British side of things, the only allies they had were the loyalists who were living in America at the time. They expected the loyalists to help them fight, but the response from them was so much lower than they expected that the British resorted to hiring German

In spite of all this the British had many difficulties and challenges. They had no major allies, and the only outside help that they received was from German mercenaries they hired, which cost them a fortune. When the war started, the British army only numbered 48,000 strong, and only dwindled from there. They could not recruit enough soldiers for their army and eventually resorted to allowing convicted criminals to join, as well as expanding the age range to be from 16 to 50. They suffered from poor leadership as well, since promotions and positions could be purchased by wealthy people. This often resulted in leaders without any leadership or experience taking charge of many