Question

What was Britain’s Southern Strategy?

Answer 1

Britain's Southern Strategy was a plan implemented by the British during the Revolutionary War to win the conflict by concentrating the British forces in the southern states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. This strategy began with British concern over the course of the war in the North. The unlikely alliance between France and the Americans made the British government to rethink it's strategy in dealing with the rebellion in America. The Southern Strategy hoped to capitalise on Loyalists, turn the war over to them in America while they fought the French at the sea and abroad. British government needed to defend the West Indies from the French, and take the opportunity to capture the tobacco and rice growing colonies of the South. This campaign (1780-1781) was thus the application of the British grand strategy to conduct a counterinsurgency operation aimed at pacifying the Southern colonies.

The strategy ultimately failed due to many factors. British Secretary of State for the American Department, Lord George Germain led the strategy on the assumption that many southerners remained loyal to the British. However American loyalist support never matched Germain's expectations and by 1781, the Southern Strategy failed to prevent British defeat in the war. The British overestimated the number of Loyalists in the South, and because the French were able to incur a massive naval defeat on the British at the Virgin Capes, this directly led to the Siege of Yorktown and Cornwallis surrender. The Southern campaign initially went well for the British with Savannah and Charleston coming under their control by 1780. British commander Cornwallis then planned to move his troops through the Carolina back country providing what he thought would be a morale booster to the loyalists there. His intent was to raise a loyalist militia which supported by the British regulars, would take control of the back country. This proved successful and by 1780, British control of South Carolina seemed assured, especially after Cornwallis' defeat of American forces at Camden in August 1780. However at the operational and tactical level, Cornwallis became quickly frustrated by the situation in the South, particularly with colonists who would receive training and weapons from the British and then desert to join the rebels. This led to his order to hang every Loyalist who had deserted, imprison all people who did not support the cause, and use their consificated property to compensate Loyalist losses.

The Southern Strategy campaign was so poorly planned that the British operations inflamed the population and pushed them towards the rebels rather than pacifying them. A fierce partisan war between American patriots and a number of shrinking number of loyalists ensued in the South from 1780 to 1782. Southern patriots proved their growing strength over loyalist forces at the decisive Battle of King's Mountain in the North Carolina back country in October 1780. This was the first American victory in the South since Savannah's capture, and boosted the morale of southern patriots. Continued success of the Continental troops also hastened the demise of Britain's Southern Strategy as 1781 dawned.