Marlborough's America

Scholars of British America generally conclude that the early eighteenth-century Anglo-American empire was commercial in economics, liberal in politics, and parochial in policy, somnambulant in an era of “salutary neglect,” but Stephen Saunders Webb here demonstrates that the American provinces, under the spur of war, became capitalist, coercive, and aggressive, owing to the vigorous leadership of career army officers, trained and nominated to American government by the captain general of the allied armies, the first duke of Marlborough, and that his influence, and that of his legates, prevailed through the entire century in America. Webb’s work follows the duke, whom an eloquent enemy described as “the greatest statesman and the greatest general that this country or any other country has produced,” his staff and soldiers, through the ten campaigns, which, by defanging France, made the union with Scotland possible and made “Great Britain” preeminent in the Atlantic world. Then Webb demonstrates that the duke’s legates transformed American colonies into provinces of empire. __Marlborough’s America__, fifty years in the making, is the fourth volume of __The Governors-General__.

Scholars of British America generally conclude that the early eighteenth-century Anglo-American empire was commercial in economics, liberal in politics, and parochial in policy, somnambulant in an era of “salutary neglect,” but Stephen Saunders Webb here demonstrates that the American provinces, under the spur of war, became capitalist, coercive, and aggressive, owing to the vigorous leadership of career army officers, trained and nominated to American government by the captain general of the allied armies, the first duke of Marlborough, and that his influence, and that of his legates, prevailed through the entire century in America.

Webb’s work follows the duke, whom an eloquent enemy described as “the greatest statesman and the greatest general that this country or any other country has produced,” his staff and soldiers, through the ten campaigns, which, by defanging France, made the union with Scotland possible and made “Great Britain” preeminent in the Atlantic world. Then Webb demonstrates that the duke’s legates transformed American colonies into provinces of empire. Marlborough’s America, fifty years in the making, is the fourth volume of The Governors-General.

Scholars of British America generally conclude that the early eighteenth-century Anglo-American empire was commercial in economics, liberal in politics, and parochial in policy, somnambulant in an era of “salutary neglect,” but Stephen Saunders Webb here demonstrates that the American provinces, under the spur of war, became capitalist, coercive, and aggressive, owing to the vigorous leadership of career army officers, trained and nominated to American government by the captain general of the allied armies, the first duke of Marlborough, and that his influence, and that of his legates, prevailed through the entire century in America. Webb’s work follows the duke, whom an eloquent enemy described as “the greatest statesman and the greatest general that this country or any other country has produced,” his staff and soldiers, through the ten campaigns, which, by defanging France, made the union with Scotland possible and made “Great Britain” preeminent in the Atlantic world. Then Webb demonstrates that the duke’s legates transformed American colonies into provinces of empire. Marlborough’s America , fifty years in the making, is the fourth volume of The Governors-General . Contents 7 Illustrations 8 Preface: Army and Empire 11 ENVOY : “The Sunshine Day” 23 PART I :WINNING AMERICA IN EUROPE 52 CHAPTER ONE: Grand Designs 52 Chapter Two: The March to the Danube 80 Chapter Three: Blenheim 98 Chapter Four: Greater Britain 122 Chapter Five: Ramillies and Union 145 PART I I : “THE ENDLESS WAR”: PRÉCIS 184 Chapter Six: Oudenarde 184 Chapter Seven: Malplaquet 207 Chapter Eight: The Duke’s Decline 234 Chapter Nine: Quebec and Bouchain 249 PART III : MARLBOROUGH’S AMERICA: PRÉCIS 289 Chapter Ten: The Dreadful Death of Daniel Parke 289 Chapter Eleven: Defending the Revolution: Robert Hunter in New York 313 Chapter Twelve: Alexander Spotswood: Architect of Empire 352 Epilogue: The “Golden Adventure” 393 Notes 437 Acknowledgments 577 Index 581 Scholars of British America generally conclude that the early 18th-century Anglo-American empire was commercial in economics liberal in politics, and parochial in policy, somnambulant in an era of 'salutary neglect', but, in this book, Stephen Saunders Webb demonstrates that the American provinces, under the spur of war, became capitalist, coercive, and aggresive