CAS PO 141 Lecture : US Navy 1775 and Political Affairs .docx
21 Apr 2014
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American naval forces in the war of independence took many forms, most of them designed to meet a specific need at a particular moment (3) On the whole, the history of american naval forces in the war of independence is a tale of innovation and perseverance rather than strategic insight or applied doctrine (3) The backbone of the royal navy was its fleets of ships-of-the-line of the eighteenth century. Their designation as ships-of-the-line" derived from the unchallenged assumption that the most efficient and deadly formation for a fleet of sailing warships was the line ahead (3) 1783-1812: after the french revolution broke out, portugal joins the british-led coalition to check the growth of french power. This decision affected the united states because up to that moment portugal had concentrated its naval forces in the straight of gibraltar, keeping the corsairs of the north african city states, particularly algiers, out of the atlantic sea- lanes.
