Foreign Intervention

The intervention of foreign powers had a significant impact on the outcome of the Americam Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. In the American Revolution the aid of the French greatly influneced the outcome of the war. The rebelling colonies could not have defeated the Britian had it not been for french aid dating back to 1775 when the French, although they were not directly involved in the war yet, where supplying the colonies with gunpowder, about 90% of the rebel armies gunpowder was supplied by the French. Three years later in 1778 the French allied with the colonies formally. Eventually Spain and Holland also joined in the battle against the British. Had it not been for these foriegn interventions Britain would have eventually been able to crush the rebellion. In the War of 1812 the intervention of the Russian tsar Alexander I is what led to thepeace meetings. The tsar wanted to ensure that his ally the British was not too busy dealing with the United States to effectively fight Napoleon. The tsar then began to encourage peace meetings which resulted in the ending of the war by the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. Thus the ending of the War of 1812 is due to the intervention of Russia. Finally in the Civil War the interventions on behalf of Britain aiding the South caused the south to grow overlyt depedent on foreign aid. Once this aid was cut off by the North the South was too weak to maintain a strong front against the North. Therefore the outcomes of all three of these wars were largely due to the intervention of nations around the world.