That is a popular view, but it is mostly a myth – not at all true. For some months after the siege of Norfolk was won, entirely through a brilliant combined army and navy operation of the French, neither side knew that the war was over. That was decided by British PM Lord North after a debate in Parliament which decided that the 13 Colonies were just not worth the cost of a continued war.

I suspect tat the British felt that the colonies would be taken over by the French, and that would be a well-deserved punishment for the American traitors.

I am making this point only because of the modern tendency of Americans for disparaging the French as cowards and “surrender monkeys”. There is a sound basis in fact for the view that the French gave the USA its independence. This idea is totally abhorrent to Americans brought up on a diet of proud myths about the War of Independence.

It was incredibly brave for those colonial rebels (mostly merchants and lawyers rather than soldiers who would have known better) to challenge the British with a Declaration of Independence, and the new country certainly would not have achieved its independence without their courage, but the actual war was decided by a predominantly artillery siege battle between professional British and French troops in which Americans hardly participated at all on either side. In a real way this was an extension of the long-running Anglo-French war in Europe. If the Battle of Yorktown had not taken place it is highly likely that Washington and his deserting rag bag army would have been mopped up during the following summer.

If you want to learn about some genuine worthy defeats of the British by Americans, look at the War of 1812, but be careful about which battles you choose, because overall they came out about 50/50. Even though the British objective then was not to win back the colonies, I suggest that the War of Independence should include that period, so it did not end until 1814.