Michael Rose: How a Revolution Saved an Empire
[Michael Rose, a retired British Army general, commanded the United Nations forces in the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 1995.]
AS Lord Cornwallis’s defeated army marched out of Yorktown, Va., in October 1781, its band is said to have played a tune called “The World Turned Upside Down.” It seemed appropriate: Cornwallis, King George III and his ministers were convinced that this defeat and the withdrawal of British troops from the 13 colonies would result not only in anarchy in America but also in the collapse of the entire British Empire.
France, Spain and other rivals, they were certain, would seize the remaining colonies in America, the West Indies, the Mediterranean and India. Worse still, the Irish, heartened by the success of the American rebellion, would rise up. At the end of the day, Britain would become no more than an unimportant island off northwestern Europe.
Of course, George III’s strategic assessment on the outcome of the defeat at Yorktown — like everything else that he had been responsible for during the War of Independence — was entirely wrong. It was by finally accepting defeat in what at that time was a relatively unimportant part of the world that Britain was able to focus on what really mattered — continuing to build its influence and empire across the globe.
If the Whig opposition, led by Lord Rockingham, had not had the moral courage and vision to accept defeat by the American colonists, and had not been able to persuade the king and his ministers to do likewise, Britain would likely have lost its position in the world, and today the people of the largest democracy in the world, India, would be speaking either French or Portuguese. By ending the unnecessary war in North America, Britain was able rapidly to rebuild its army and navy, eventually take on and defeat Napoleon, and become the unquestioned pre-eminent global power....
It had truly been the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. So how did Britain recover? War is the parent of illusions, and the first step in ending a war must be to shatter those illusions. It takes courage to accept defeat and vision to see that good can emerge from what appears to be disaster.
On hearing the news of the defeat at Yorktown, Lord North, the prime minister and architect of the war, is reported to have thrown his arms in the air exclaimed, “Oh, God, it’s all over.” In fact, for Britain it was just beginning. The nation was on the threshold of the industrial revolution; some rising politicians, like William Pitt (the younger one), could see beyond the end of the war and plan for Britain’s rapid political and economic recovery....
Today, of course, the United States finds itself in much the same position as Britain in 1781. Distracted and diminished by an irrelevant, costly and probably unwinnable war in Iraq, America could ultimately find itself challenged by countries like China and India. Unless it can find a leader with the moral courage of Pitt, there is a strong probability that it will be forced to relinquish its position as the global superpower — possibly to a regime that does not have the same commitment to justice and liberty that the United States and Britain have worked so hard to extend across the world over the past two centuries.
The sound of the first shot fired at Lexington in 1775 echoed across the world. So too did the firing of the last shot six years later at Yorktown. That second echo brought salvation for Britain, and ultimately great benefit to the entire world.
Read entire article at NYT
AS Lord Cornwallis’s defeated army marched out of Yorktown, Va., in October 1781, its band is said to have played a tune called “The World Turned Upside Down.” It seemed appropriate: Cornwallis, King George III and his ministers were convinced that this defeat and the withdrawal of British troops from the 13 colonies would result not only in anarchy in America but also in the collapse of the entire British Empire.
France, Spain and other rivals, they were certain, would seize the remaining colonies in America, the West Indies, the Mediterranean and India. Worse still, the Irish, heartened by the success of the American rebellion, would rise up. At the end of the day, Britain would become no more than an unimportant island off northwestern Europe.
Of course, George III’s strategic assessment on the outcome of the defeat at Yorktown — like everything else that he had been responsible for during the War of Independence — was entirely wrong. It was by finally accepting defeat in what at that time was a relatively unimportant part of the world that Britain was able to focus on what really mattered — continuing to build its influence and empire across the globe.
If the Whig opposition, led by Lord Rockingham, had not had the moral courage and vision to accept defeat by the American colonists, and had not been able to persuade the king and his ministers to do likewise, Britain would likely have lost its position in the world, and today the people of the largest democracy in the world, India, would be speaking either French or Portuguese. By ending the unnecessary war in North America, Britain was able rapidly to rebuild its army and navy, eventually take on and defeat Napoleon, and become the unquestioned pre-eminent global power....
It had truly been the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. So how did Britain recover? War is the parent of illusions, and the first step in ending a war must be to shatter those illusions. It takes courage to accept defeat and vision to see that good can emerge from what appears to be disaster.
On hearing the news of the defeat at Yorktown, Lord North, the prime minister and architect of the war, is reported to have thrown his arms in the air exclaimed, “Oh, God, it’s all over.” In fact, for Britain it was just beginning. The nation was on the threshold of the industrial revolution; some rising politicians, like William Pitt (the younger one), could see beyond the end of the war and plan for Britain’s rapid political and economic recovery....
Today, of course, the United States finds itself in much the same position as Britain in 1781. Distracted and diminished by an irrelevant, costly and probably unwinnable war in Iraq, America could ultimately find itself challenged by countries like China and India. Unless it can find a leader with the moral courage of Pitt, there is a strong probability that it will be forced to relinquish its position as the global superpower — possibly to a regime that does not have the same commitment to justice and liberty that the United States and Britain have worked so hard to extend across the world over the past two centuries.
The sound of the first shot fired at Lexington in 1775 echoed across the world. So too did the firing of the last shot six years later at Yorktown. That second echo brought salvation for Britain, and ultimately great benefit to the entire world.