The American Revolution and its War for Independence comprised the United States’ founding movement. The War for Independence also served as the fifth major war for European empire in North America.
The fourth war for European empire, the Seven Years’ War, reshaped and redefined Europe’s worldwide colonial landscape in Great Britain’s favor. The American Revolutionary War presented Britain’s European rivals with an opportunity to regain some of the territory they had lost. An opportunity we can see those rivals seizing in the Revolutionary War’s Western Theater.
Stephen Kling, Jr., is the author and co-author of several books and articles about the American Revolution in the West. His latest book, The American Revolutionary War in the West, has served as the basis for a museum exhibit at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters, Missouri. Stephen joins us as our expert guide on our expedition through the Revolution’s Western Theater.
Feature image: Mitchell Note, “Battle of St. Louis,” Courtesy of THGC Publishing.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklin’s World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode Summary
Stephen Kling, Jr., is the Founder and President of THGC Publishing, a company that publishes both historical books and war games. He’s a practicing attorney who has authored and co-authored several books and articles on the American Revolutionary War in the West, including, The Battle of St. Louis, the Attack on Cahokia, and the American Revolution in the West, Cavalry in the Wilderness, and most recently, The American Revolutionary War in the West. He is also the co-curator of the new American Revolutionary War in the West museum exhibit at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters, Missouri.
During our exploration, Stephen reveals different European empires that claimed territory and control of the West; Information about who lived in the early American West and what it was like to live in the West; And, details about the Battle of St. Louis and the Attack on Cahokia in May 1780.
What You’ll Discover
- What European powers had a presence in the West
- Military garrisons in the West
- How military expeditions in the West were supplied
- George Rogers Clark in the West
- The role of Indigenous people in the war’s Western Theater
- The Battle of St. Louis and the attack on Cahokia
- The type of military fighting that occurred in the West
- Finding information about women, African Americans, and Indigenous people in the historical record
- Oral histories about the Revolutionary War in the West
- Getting supplies in the West
- When the war in the West ended
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Time Warp Question
In your opinion, what might have happened if the British had taken proper precautions to protect its claimed Western territories after 1763, so after the Seven Years’ War ended? How do you think the American Revolution and its war might have turned out differently?
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