Outline

In the late 1700s, America was still a new and well underdeveloped not-yet recognized nation and British was the top dog among the other nations in the world; even bigger than France and Spain who were also part of the major nations in the world. But what led for an undisciplined, unorganized and divided developing nation “win” over the most powerful nation in the world at that time? Britain's military was the best in the world especially the British Navy. Their soldiers were well equipped, well disciplined, well paid, and well fed. Funds were much more easily raised by the Empire than by the Continental Congress; a large part of the British army was made up mercenaries using those funds. On the other hand, the Americans had tremendous difficulty raising enough funds to purchase basic supplies for their troops. Most of the colonists were still loyal to the crown and debated their rights to up rise against their mother country. But the Americans had a big tactical advantage. The British fought a war far from home. Military orders, troops, and supplies sometimes took months to reach their destinations. Also the geographic locations of the towns and cities were long marches in the hot or cold weather. Despite occupying every major city, the British remained as at a disadvantage. But very soon, Americans had a grand cause: fighting for their rights, their independence and their liberty; the alliance with French also boosted the American’s fighting spirits. The war was also very expensive and even Britain started to have second thoughts about this war.
In short, the British military was professional and organized while the Americans were undisciplined and made up of volunteers. The British soldiers had no interest in the war with America while the colonists had their spirits fired up. The British soldiers were fighting a war thousands of miles away from their homeland while the Americans were fighting locally and used guerilla warfare tactics.
A clear strength from Britain is that when war erupted in 1775, it seemed clear that Britain would win. It had a large, well-organized land army, and the Royal Navy was unmatched on the sea. Many of the British troops in the Revolutionary War were veterans who had fought in the French and Indian War. On the other hand, a clear weakness from the Americans was that it had only undisciplined militiamen and/or farmers who had never fought before. The American navy was small and no match for the thousand ships in the royal fleet. Many military leaders played a role in the American Revolutionary War.
When the war began, the American colonists did not have a standing army but each State had their own separate militia to use as local defense. In order to improve militia efforts the Continental Congress established the Continental Army in 1775 to not just protect an individual State but all of them when needed. George Washington was appointed as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress but it did improve after Washington molded the Continental Army into a professional fighting force, but the odds still seemed heavily stacked in Britain’s favor. America may have had the most bizarre militiamen but with great leaders even the worse can become great.
At the head of the British forces was the king, who was captain general of all forces both naval and military. From 1772 to 1778 the office didn’t have anyone to fill up the position, but from 1778 to 1782 Sir Jeffery Amherst was pronounced as Commander-in-Chief with the title of General on the Staff; he was then succeeded in February, 1782 by Henry Seymour Conway. Despite having known and respected leaders, Great Britain hired the services of military troops from Germany and the country Hesse-Kassel, hence the term "Hessians".
An advantage that proved to be very favorable to the Americans was the support that they showed toward the war. Though there was a lot of Americans loyal to the