The American Revolution involved a naval war of immense scope and
variety, including no fewer than twenty-two navies fighting on five
oceans to say nothing of rivers and lakes. In no other war were so many
large-scale fleet battles fought, one of which was the most
strategically significant naval battle in all of British, French, and
American history. Simultaneous naval campaigns were fought in the
English Channel, the North and Mid-Atlantic, the Mediterranean, off
South Africa, in the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the Pacific, the North
Sea and, of course, off the eastern seaboard of America. Not until the
Second World War would any nation actively fight in so many different
theaters.
In The Struggle for Sea Power, Sam Willis traces every key military
event in the path to American independence from a naval perspective, and
he also brings this important viewpoint to bear on economic, political,
and social developments that were fundamental to the success of the
Revolution. In doing so Willis offers valuable new insights into
American, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Russian history.
This unique account of the American Revolution gives us a new
understanding of the influence of sea power upon history, of the
American path to independence, and of the rise and fall of the British
Empire."
