The Cartoon History of the American Revolution

The American revolutionary war was an unusual fight. There were many in the colonies that wanted to remain under the English crown and there were many in England who were content to let the colonies go. The colonists had a difficult time in fielding armies, had the British been more determined to prevail they most certainly would have. Mercenaries hired from some of the smaller Germanic states did a great deal of the fighting on the British side, as the British found internal recruitment difficult. The end result was assured when Spain, France and Holland all entered the war against Britain, ostensibly to aid the colonists, but in reality their goals were to try to win some British territory. Spain wanted Gibraltar, France some of the Caribbean islands and the Dutch wanted to prevail in the East Indies. This book is a collection of cartoons that appeared in Britain and America during the revolutionary war. It is ironic that while there was a great deal of censorship of the press, cartoonists were given fairly free reign. A great deal of explanation is given for the cartoons, and those explanations are essential. Without them, it would be impossible to understand them. American colonists are generally depicted as Indians, the British as a female Britannia, and the Dutch as merchants. The British cartoons often show a government divided over policy. While King George III was by then a constitutional monarch, he still had a great influence over policy. There was a great deal of incompetence among the British government and military and as is always the case, politics still operated, even in the midst of a war. The American cartoons are easier to understand, although I could not have followed them without the explanations. I could recognize many of the people in the drawings and had some idea as to what they signified but in most cases could not be sure what was being represented. By modern standards, the cartooning was sometimes crude, as the exaggerated features of a caricature were not used. This book is a history lesson, complete with the figures that helped drive the opinions that created the history. It reinforces an aspect of the American revolutionary war that is underappreciated, namely that it could have easily gone the other way. A little less incompetence on the British side and the British would have retained control of North America, at least for a while longer.