During 1776 The British Army was close to winning the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army held few victories and was continually on the run. On October 12, 1777 the Americans were able to defeat the British in the battle of Saratoga. With this battle the British lost New England. More importantly, it convinced the French that the Americans could indeed win the war and France signed a formal alliance with America. In September 1781, the French fleet stopped General Cornwallis from resupply at Yorktown and he surrendered 8,000 men to the combined American-French forces. The Americans and the British signed the Treaty of Paris in January 1783 and the American Revolutionary War officially ended. However, the question of whether the British Army lost the American Revolutionary War or if the American Continental Army won remains. The American Continental Army fought valiantly against the most powerful country of the time period, but to say that they won with some aid from the French would be a gross overstatement of the facts. If the British committed all their military power they would surely have won the American Revolutionary War. Instead they lost it for the following reasons.
             Foreign intervention was certainly one of the main reasons behind Britain's defeat. During the war, the intervention of France caused major strategic problems for Britain. The British had to protect troop convoys, the West Indies and India from the French while they battled the American Continental Army on their home ground. The American Continental Army did not need to defeat Britain to achieve victory, they just had to avoid being defeated themselves. Additionally, the French evened the military odds between the British and the Americans by supplying the Americans with weapons and men. In fact, by the end of the war, nearly all of the weapons and half of the manpower in General Washington's besieging army came from France. In the end, fi...