Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

battlefields.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 114 posts

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#81

Post by watwut »

ngc248 wrote: post #70
ericmay wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure lack of French support would have made a difference with how we understand America today assuming the Americans had still won, but had the British won, frankly, I think the US would have been better off in many respects.

>>> but had the British won, frankly, I think the US would have been better off in many respects. Hard disagree here, I am from a former british colony, where the laws etc are still inspired by the british. The American constitution and political and legal system with its checks and balances is outright better than the british system. Of course its not perfect, but its still miles better. So its good that the rebels…

I dunno, American system seems to be in capture by minority party and also has track record of disenfranchising large part of population. Plus, juridical system underperformed in Amrica, due to very little checks or balances on cops and prosecutors. They also imprison impressive amount of population.

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#82

Post by Arvindsreekumar »

France was a key ally to the Americans during the Revolutionary War, and their support was instrumental in helping the young nation gain legitimacy in the eyes of other countries. The French military's intervention at the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the war, and without their help, the Americans may have been soundly defeated by the British.

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#83

Post by Konohamaru »

Arvindsreekumar wrote: post #82

France was a key ally to the Americans during the Revolutionary War, and their support was instrumental in helping the young nation gain legitimacy in the eyes of other countries. The French military's intervention at the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the war, and without their help, the Americans may have been soundly defeated by the British.

[flagged]

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#85

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #64
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no illusion at being able to make a difference on this. But it is so irritating when Congress people go on about 'freedom fries' and 'French cowardice', 'surrender monkeys' etc. And I'm not even French...

On the bright side that happened during a limited window in time in the early to mid 2000’s. It certainly hasn’t persisted and plenty of people mocked it back in the day as well.

It certainly has, surrender monkey is a meme at this point anytime the french are mentioned.

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#86

Post by hef19898 »

zhdc1 wrote: post #80
Nomentatus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a maxim that guerrilla wars succeed with a lot of external help and supply, if they succeed at all, throughout history. That's fact. The French were financial supporters from before the shooting began; and supplied high tech gunpowder that meant that from the start the colonists' muskets had significantly more range, no small thing. Without France, nothing. The French ended up bankrupting the state due to extrem…

> It's a maxim that guerrilla wars succeed with a lot of external help and supply, if they succeed at all, Not true. Show me where in "On Guerrilla Warfare" Zedong - an expert on the American and French Revolutions - claims that guerrilla warfare requires external support. Guerrilla warfare requires the support of the population (pretty much all US IW joint doctrine highlights this). Economic power facilitates guerri…

Considering how much suppory the Chinese gave to North Vietnam, I assume he knew how important support from third parties is.

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#87

Post by [deleted] »

Arvindsreekumar wrote: post #82

France was a key ally to the Americans during the Revolutionary War, and their support was instrumental in helping the young nation gain legitimacy in the eyes of other countries. The French military's intervention at the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the war, and without their help, the Americans may have been soundly defeated by the British.

[deleted]

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#88

Post by euler5050 »

whearyou wrote: post #67
random314 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the ongoing siege of Gaza counts? Counting 15 years. Or does it not count without any active fight back OR because Gaza is a part of Israel and thus Israel has laid a siege on itself?

Not a siege in any sense. What sieges not only allow the besieged to conduct import/export but actively pay for the besieged’s supplies? Leave the ideology somewhere else

Does it matter if some supplies are let through if the end result of attrition is still achieved?

"Cases of child malnutrition double in Gaza because of blockade" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1172086/

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#89

Post by dieselgate »

Konohamaru wrote: post #83
Arvindsreekumar wrote: post #82

France was a key ally to the Americans during the Revolutionary War, and their support was instrumental in helping the young nation gain legitimacy in the eyes of other countries. The French military's intervention at the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the war, and without their help, the Americans may have been soundly defeated by the British.

[flagged]

Please consider a review of the HN comment guidelines, not sure this adds to the discussion and is basically name calling and insinuating a bot https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How France Changed the Tides of the American Revolution (2018)

#90

Post by pvg »

082349872349872 wrote: post #66

There is a line in "Don't Be Fools, America" that I had wondered at: Екатерина, ты была не права. "Catherine, you were wrong" Apparently George had written Catherine for troops to send to the colonies, and at first she (or her rep) had agreed (what uppity subjects!) but then none were never sent. So the colonists got support (of omission in this case, not commission) even from an absolutist monarch because they were…

I think this is a little fanciful, the song is entirely about Alaska which was sold to the US 71 years after Catherine died. The more reasonable explanation is that the line in the song is just wrong for poetic license or other reasons.
Post reply on HN