Brief history of the American Revolutionary War

Original language: castellano

Year of publication: 2017

Valuation: Can be read

I guess it’s pretty obvious why someone reads a history book. Of course, to learn more about the subject it deals with, and in this task not only rigor and a sufficient volume of information is essential, but also a certain balance in which expository clarity can be the key factor. We want to know what happened in a certain period, to know the fundamental events, its background, the decisive characters, the environment, the development and outcome, the consequences. Of course it should not be an easy task, it is not enough for the author to master the subject with the presupposed solvency, he has to know how to synthesize, structure and, most importantly, transmit.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. If I approached this book it was because I was interested in knowing something more, or just something, about the American War of Independence, why and how those thirteen States broke with the English metropolis at the end of the 18th century. I chose this book, and I am not, I will say, eager, but half-hearted. Possibly the process is somewhat confusing in itself, with a Declaration of Independence that does not trigger immediate and radical effects, a multitude of battles that are rather indecisive encounters, and a development that does not adjust to the territorial evolution of other conflicts either. I imagine that this makes a clear chronological exposition difficult, but that is where the author’s expertise must lie.

I certainly do not doubt Montserrat Huguet’s knowledge, in fact the profusion of data displayed in the book shows that she handles a lot of information, even that she makes an effort to synthesize it. But the result is far from gratifying. It seems clear that the desire to free themselves from English power responds almost exclusively to economic reasons, the colonists are harmed by the limitations on trade with other nations (limitations derived from London’s disputes with the French and Spanish), and they rebel against taxes. approved from the other side of the ocean.

But when the situation moves towards open conflict, the text plunges into confusion. Recognizing the difficulty of describing an atomized and non-linear process, the author does not seem capable of providing order and light. The battles, statements, incidents multiply, dozens of names parade that are not easy to locate, much less prioritize, because the author does not do so. The chronological order is blurred, if not directly disrupted, with incursions into specific aspects (trade, slavery, the position of the indigenous people) that disorient the layman, and the real importance of the key figures (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adam , Madison) is not clearly determined in many cases. Only the profile of several of them that is included in the final part (the most interesting) allows them to be recognized more clearly.

Well, in the face of the snubs of the metropolis and the harm of which the colonists began to feel victims, a movement of rebellion was generated, which to some extent was also a feeling of opposition to the social stratification of old Europe and in favor of of an incipient and nebulous democratic consciousness, or rather of an aspiration for equality. This crystallized in the union of the thirteen colonies (a union whose format was always discussed, until later leading to a Civil War) and in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, to which London initially did not give excessive importance. From here on, the idea of ​​creating a new State was strengthened, developing a war based on specific and dispersed confrontations, Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown and all those names that may sound familiar to us. I see it as something different from a war of fronts, it is rather a revolt that is gaining weight with the progressive organization of the army of settlers, who harass the redcoats at the same time as the legitimist civilians. Native Americans (almost always on the English side), French and Spanish intervene directly or indirectly in the conflict and it is, from an international point of view, a fight among several others for the control of the seas and world trade, although obviously for the rebellious Anglo-Americans it is above all a growing aspiration for self-government.

They are the basic ideas that one can extract from reading, although the way of presenting them is, as I pointed out before, quite deficient, confusing, disorganized and unattractive for the reader who is not initiated into the subject. It is the subject that remains pending for the author, at least with regard to this book: being able to transmit, in the case of a clearly informative text, the interest of some episodes that have undoubtedly had enormous importance in History, but when told without sparkle and rather with little clarity, they end up with something that tends hopelessly towards the leaden and boring.