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American strategy

The Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, stood to benefit if the American Revolution evolved into a protracted war. Their thirteen colonial state populations were largely prosperous and depended on local production for food and supplies rather than on imports from Britain, which took six to twelve weeks to arrive by cross- Atlantic shipping. The thirteen colonies were spread across most of North American Atlantic seaboard, stretching 1,000 miles. Most colonial farms were remote from the seaports, and control of four or five major ports did not give Britain control over American inland areas. Each state had established internal distribution systems.

Each of the thirteen colonies also had a long-established system of local militia, which were combat-tested in support of British regulars thirteen years before to secure an expanded British Empire. Together, these militias denied France's claims to North America west of the Mississippi River in the French and Indian War. The thirteen colonial state legislatures independently funded and controlled their local militias. In the American Revolution, they trained and provided Continental Line regiments to the regular army, each with their own state officer corps. Motivation was also a major asset: each colonial capital had its own newspapers and printers, and the Patriots enjoyed more popular support than the Loyalists. Britain hoped that the Loyalists would do much of the fighting, but found that the Loyalists did not engage as significantly as they had hoped.