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What If The United States Lost The American Revolutionary War?
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Mar 31, 2025
The United States of today exists only because the Revolutionaries of the late 1700s won their war for independence from the British monarchy. However, winning was not always a sure thing. The British were better equipped, supplied, trained, and positioned to win against the Continental Army. But they also made a few key mistakes that ultimately cost them the war. So what if the 13 colonies lost their war for independence?
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The United States as we know it today is the product of a singular event, the American Revolutionary War
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In 1776, 13 colonies of the budding British Empire declared formal independence and kicked off a war that it would eventually win
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From that point on, the United States became its own country and began a relatively quick pace to becoming the world power that exists today
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But what if the 13 colonies lost their war for independence? But first, today's episode is sponsored by MyHeritage
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Hello and welcome to What If Geography, where we try and answer the great geographic what-if
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questions of the world. I'm your host Jeff Gibson, and today we're going back in time to
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the American Revolution. Given the Queen's recent passing, Americans around the country
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have been rediscovering their own relationship with the British monarchy. But a few hundred
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years ago, that relationship was much less friendly. After all, the Americans of the
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Revolutionary War spent eight years fighting for their freedom from that same crown. In the end
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the Americans won and the United States was born. But it was not an easy victory and there was a
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very real possibility that the Americans would lose. But before we dive into the history of the
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American Revolutionary War, consider following me on Twitter and Instagram to find more of my
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geography content Links are in the description below The United States as we know it today would not exist had the 13 colonies not won their independence during the American Revolutionary War And while the colonies did win it was really touch and go for
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a while. In fact, without some key victories by the colonies and some questionable tactics by the
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British military, there's a very strong likelihood that the colonies would have lost the war and
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returned to being a part of the British Empire. In 1777, the British were in a really strong
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position to stop the rebellion before it could really find its footing. Had it not been for one
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big mistake at the early part of the war, they probably would have won. You see, one early plan
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of the British military was to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies, and given current
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British military stations, that was a pretty easy thing for them to do. British General William Howe
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and his troops were stationed in New York City, and they were going to push north into upstate New
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York. Meanwhile, British troops based in Canada were to drive south down the Mohawk Valley and
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connect with Howe's forces. Doing so would have effectively sealed off the colonies of Connecticut
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Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire from the rest of the colonies and removed them
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from the war effort. Unfortunately for the British, General Howe did not actually press
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north as intended. Instead, he opted to send his forces south to Philadelphia, where he hoped to
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capture the seat of the rebellion's political infrastructure. Not a terrible idea, but in
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hindsight, it did not work out well at all. The American troops were able to secure a number of
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victories against the British-Canadian troops in the north, which helped secure and keep New
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England in the war for the duration. Struggling in the north, the British decided to turn their
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attention to the southern colonies where they believed that there was far more loyalist support
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Once again, this seemed like a sound strategy for the British. In fact, they were able to secure and
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occupy Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, while also winning some key decisive
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victories. However, the British made one very severe mistake in their assumptions for the south
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There were not nearly as many loyalists as they thought, and while the British did win many
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conventional battles, the South eventually degraded into a grueling guerrilla war that
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saw their armies decimated and their supply lines crippled. In the end, the British's southern
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strategy was a dismal failure. One final decisive moment of the American Revolutionary War was when
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the rebels in the burgeoning country was able to secure a formal alliance with France. The French
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were integral not only in helping the American forces at key moments of the war, but also in
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distracting the British globally. And this alliance would not have happened had the American forces
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not won a key battle at Saratoga. It's worth pointing out that, had General Howe marched his
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army north instead of to Philadelphia, the British almost certainly would have won this battle
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and France very well would never have allied itself with the American revolutionaries
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There are countless ways the Americans could have lost their war for independence
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The fact that there's a United States today at all is, in all likelihood, an anomaly. The British
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military was better equipped trained and positioned than the Continental Army Were it but not for a few key mistakes it likely that the United States as we know it today would not exist But before we get into what a world would look like without an independent United States
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if you're enjoying this video, now would be a great time to subscribe. More fun What If geography videos are just one click away
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It's impossible to accurately predict how North America would look had the United States never existed as an independent nation
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There are so many variables at play that there are literally an infinite amount of possibilities
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That said, we can make a few educated guesses at how North America would turn out
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The most likely change to North America is that France would not have sold its North American territory to Britain
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In 1803, the new government of France opted to sell 828,000 square miles of Middle America
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to the newly independent United States for $15 million. dollars. While the territory was in constant flux with Spain, ultimately France opted to sell it to
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the United States in order to pay for its war against Britain. If the United Kingdom still
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owned the original colonies, it's unlikely France would have sold the territory at all
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And without the purchase of the Louisiana territory, the remainder of North America
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changes drastically. The current US states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho would have remained
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territories of Britain and likely would be part of Canada today. Alaska would likely still be
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owned by Russia or have been purchased by Canada itself. The Texas Republic would either still
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exist in some form, or more likely be a part of Mexico. And the current American Southwest
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including California, would also likely be part of Mexico today, or a new country entirely
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Hawaii would also likely be an independent Polynesian country, as it was forcefully annexed
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by the United States. And of course, there are thousands of other possible changes to the
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geopolitical landscape of North America. The good news, however, is that some form of the
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United States would very much be independent at some point, but it would look very different from
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the United States we know today. The United States is often touted as the first democracy
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in the world. That's not actually true as democracy has existed in some form since ancient Greece
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but the United States certainly revolutionized the concept when it became an independent country
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in the face of European monarchies. The founding members of the United States
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envisioned multiple layers of democratic government that would enforce a series of checks and balances
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Today, democracies exist in many former British colonies, but they're often quite different
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from what the United States uses. You see, while citizens of the United States
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currently vote for their local representative for their specific region, two state senators for whatever state they live in
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and for the president by way of a wacky electoral college system, most countries that became independent
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from Britain through other means opted instead for a parliamentary system of governance If the Continental Army lost the American Revolutionary War the country would have likely been given some sort of autonomy anyway in
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the mid to late 1800s, and it would likely have formed a parliamentary system of government
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and more specifically the Westminster system of parliamentary government. This means that there
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would be no President of the United States. Instead, there would be a Prime Minister of the United
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States. Citizens would vote for their preferred political party, and depending on how many votes
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that party got as a percentage of the population, that's how many seats that party would get. From
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there, a single party can claim to have formed a government if they have a majority of seats
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or if no party has a majority, they can form a coalition government with other political parties
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Once that is decided, the in-control party or coalition picks their own prime minister
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Canada, India, Australia, and many more former British-controlled territories use the Westminster
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form of parliamentary government. So it would make sense that whatever country eventually became
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independent from Britain, would adopt this same system. The United States today has had an enormous
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impact on the world through various wars and the implementation of soft power, wherein a country
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doesn't outright control through ownership, but is able to exert influence. It's become a mainstay
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of American power and control through the last century. Without an independent United States
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there likely would have been no or a much reduced regional and global presence for whatever country
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might have existed in its place. First and foremost, there likely would never have been
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a such thing as the Monroe Doctrine, which was a foreign policy position of the U.S. that stated
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that any foreign intervention anywhere in the Americas, north or south, was to be considered
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a hostile act against the United States. This paved the way for the United States to dominate
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the western hemisphere, which they did by controlling and interfering with local elections
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in basically every country south of their border. Additionally, the United States has been involved
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in many wars over the last century. While it's safe to assume that a British-controlled United
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States would have still been involved in World War I and World War II, just as Canada and Australia
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were involved, its impact would have likely been greatly reduced. Remember, it's highly likely that
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a British-controlled United States would not have a presence on the West Coast. More to that point
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however, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars would likely have also never
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happened. Those were all very doctrine-heavy wars led by a very specific idea of US power projection
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The United States has left an indelible impact on the modern world. Had the Continental Army not won
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its war for independence in the late 1700s, the world as we know it today would be very different
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And there's honestly no way to really tell just how different it would be
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I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, please subscribe to my channel. And if you want
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to watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching. See you next time
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