History of the United States I / Unit 6 USH1 0765 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Why Saratoga Worked
The idea
The seventeen seventy-seven plan needed three armies to meet at Albany. Burgoyne would come south from Montreal, St. Leger east from Fort Oswego with regulars, Loyalists and Iroquois allies, and Clinton north from New York City. St. Leger's advance failed and he retreated to Quebec. Burgoyne met ever-stiffer resistance down Lake Champlain and the Hudson, and though he took Ticonderoga he found himself surrounded by a sea of colonial militias at Saratoga. Clinton advanced too slowly to help him.
In practice
A plan requiring three coordinated armies over hundreds of miles of wilderness, of which one arrived.
Where people slip
The consequence is the point. The victory convinced France to recognise American independence and form a military alliance, which transformed a colonial rebellion into an international war Britain had to fight in North America and the Caribbean at once. Saratoga is examined as a turning point because of the treaty it produced, not because of the ground it decided.
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