Talk:American Revolutionary War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution states:
"1200 Hessians were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accident. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessians states:
"17,313 Hessians returned to their homelands. Of the 12,526 of those who did not, about 7,700 were killed in battles."
These claims are contradictary according to my interpretation of the context in each case. Perhaps the contexts are unclear. So, possibly more important is the fact the casualty figures in the first article are dangling, the context is apparently "The War of Independence" but is it really so? Somebody who knows something about history should make an adjustment -- Martin H.
"Boston was evacuated by British troops in October [1775]."
Hmm. Evacuation Day is celebrated on March 17th in the Boston metro area, presumably to line up with the evacuation, but I suppose it's entirely possible that the date was chosen for other reasons. So is the article wrong, or is the holiday wrong? -- EdwardOConnor
"The largest army seen in Western Europe since Roman times"? I was all set to kill this, but realized that it was *just* barely possible that he only sent part of it and that's what the quoted figure of 75,000 represents. If that's the entire sum, though, it's not even close to the largest army. Spain and France cleared five times that figure in wars during the 16th and late 17th centuries....Does anyone care to stand up for this statement? -- Paul Drye
- As I threatened earlier, I took out the claim that the army the British assembled was the largest seen since Roman times.
- Similarly hyperbolic was the claim that Philadelphia was the second largest city in the British Empire. While it's true that all English cities were remarkably smaller than London, and the colonial cities were correspondingly far up the list, at least Manchester and Liverpool were still bigger than Philadelphia in 1776 (the twice so or more).
I can't find any reason why the present title for this article is used other than that it follows the 1911 Encyclopedia. The much shorter exact phrase "American Revolution" just gave me 327,000 Google hits versus only 19,700 for "American Revolutionary War" and 9,800 for "American War of Independence". Any thoughts?
- Personally, I would refer to it as the "Revolutionary War" (the "American" is just a disambiguator); "Revolutionary War" turns up roughly 3/4 as many results as "American Revolution": 285,000 at google; "Revolutionary War" and "America" together give 143,000 (vs 201,000 for "American Revolution" with "America"); with "United States" instead 117,000 (vs 166,000).
- "American Revolution" strikes me as maybe a little old-fashioned or even pompous -- I think of "the Daughters of the American Revolution" and whatnot. Further, "Revolutionary War" as a topic seems like it would concentrate on, well, the war, as the article at present does. "American Revolution" would, to me, be a little more general a topic and would discuss more the establishment of a new system of government. But, don't take my word for it! I'm not a historian, just an American. --Brion VIBBER
Thanks for your reply, Brian. I wouldn't try to explain why Google gives different counts to different users.
- (Well, when different users input different queries, it only makes sense for the results to be different! --Brion VIBBER)
I started to question this when I was looking at the List of Battles, in particular the first Battle of Cape Saint Vincent. It was a naval battle in 1780 between the British and Spanish, which my dictionary of battles classes as belonging to the "War of the American Revolution". Many naval battles in this war did not involve American troops at all; sending an American fleet into the Indian Ocean (Battle of Trincomalee) at that time would have been an inconceivable squandering of limited resources. I very much agree that the term "American Revolution" has a broader scope than any title that includes "War" - it would include much of the political activity, and the actions of the terrorist freedom-fighters at the Boston Tea Party. Eclecticology
- "Terrorist freedom-fighters"? Covering all asses simultaneously, I see. :) --Brion VIBBER
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'the American Revolution began much earlier and was a larger scheme including the war It was? Care to enlighten us as to what that larger scheme was? -- Zoe
- Over a much longer time line (1760-1783) a broad range of events and ideas make up the revolution, not just the Revolutionary War. I would prefer that we call it something other than a 'scheme' but it included economic, political, religious, and social changes. Lou I 20:27 Apr 1, 2003 (UTC)
I'm new to this project, so if this repeats an earlier discussion, I agologize. That said, has anyone talked about creating the lsarger article describing the American Revolutionn. What I suggest is a much larger scope than the war, but with more detail than you should see in U.S. History. My question for observers is: what are your thoughts about the content and flow of such an article? Lou I 20:27 Apr 1, 2003 (UTC)
Any objections to moving this to American War of Independence? Lirath Q. Pynnor