The War Beyond America

The War for Independence was not just waged in the 13 former colonies. It was also fought on a number of fronts around the world, by armies in India, warships on the oceans, and diplomats and spies in the drawing rooms and banks of London, Paris, Amsterdam and elsewhere. Securing Dutch loans to the Americans proved every bit as important to ultimate victory as accomplishments on North American battlefields, while French and American naval successes redirected much needed British resources from North America. It also resulted in unanticipated British victories, such as the capture of Pondicherry, the largest French colony in India, in 1778, and the virtual destruction of a French fleet at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, saving Jamaica for the British.