The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 123

and Scroll
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The British shift in strategy, however,
saved the majority of their empire
and enabled them to be ready when
France once again became a threat following
the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
There are historians who state that
the Royal Navy failed in its mission to
protect Great Britain’s interests and in
fact lost the war. 65 The facts, however,
demonstrate something different. The
British political leadership failed to prepare
for war; they misjudged both the
Americans and the French. Once the
war became a global affair, however, the
British shifted strategies and strengthened
their navy, and this enabled them
to be prepared to deal with the French
and Spanish, as well as the Dutch when
they entered the war as well. They lost
their American colonies, but they retained
the majority of the global British
Empire. Canada, India, the African
possessions, and most of the West Indies
remained British. This was a result
of Lord Sandwich shifting the British
naval strategy and focusing on winning
the global war, even at the cost of the
troublesome American colonies. 66 A
decisive victory it was not. Indeed, the
terms of the Peace of Paris were decidedly
unfavorable to Britain. However,
the British Empire, although reduced,
survived. 67 France did not; revolution
swept the country in 1789. Spain was
meanwhile already in decline and, by
the end of the nineteenth century, collapsed
altogether following a disastrous
war against the United States in 1898.
The British, however, would go on to
defeat Napoleon Bonaparte and continue
to dominate the oceans until their
former enemy, the United States, took