(Google AI interview) American War of Independence was Made in Moscow!
There ya go, McCarthyites, Clintonians, McCain, McFaul, Nuland, et al:
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS MADE IN MOSCOW!
Multiple sources from Russia, including Russian news agencies and American journalists I know personally, have reported that Russia's President spoke of Russia's assistance in the US War of Independence in 1776, et seq, calling it "decisive".
I have studied history since I was a child, and continuously for now 7 decades and I must admit I viewed this suspiciously. So I asked Google AI about it.
This was the first level reply:
Q.- Putin: Russia helped US in Revolutionary War 1776
A.- Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims that Russia directly supplied weapons, funds, and military aid to the U.S. during the 1776 American Revolution oversimplify historical records . [1, 2]
During the American Revolution, the Russian Empire under Empress Catherine the Great was officially neutral. There is no historical evidence that Russia directly provided funds, weapons, or troops to the American colonists. [1, 3, 4]
However, Russia's diplomatic and maritime actions indirectly benefited the American cause:
• Refusal of British Troops: Catherine the Great rejected King George III's requests to send Russian troops to North America to suppress the colonial rebellion. This forced Britain to hire German Hessian soldiers instead.
• League of Armed Neutrality: Russia established this maritime policy in 1780 to protect neutral shipping from British naval blockades. This indirectly allowed supplies to flow from Europe to France, aiding the broader coalition fighting Britain. [1, 6, 7]
Historians view Putin's narrative as a strategic framing designed to highlight historical ties and influence modern diplomatic relations. [1, 5]
AI responses may include mistakes. (My note: No kidding, especially considering the sources.)
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The foregoing is literally true, apparently, but it's far from the whole story. Notably, the top line reply did not ask if I wanted further detail, nor was it as detailed itself as the second try.
It took some doing to extract this from Google AI, but here it is:
Q. Did Russia provide assistance to the US in the War of Independence?
A.- While Russia avoided direct military combat, its specific political and diplomatic decisions yielded two critical strategic advantages that directly fueled the American victory:
1. Buying Crucial Time for the Continental Army (1775–1776)
When the war broke out in 1775, King George III explicitly requested 20,000 battle-hardened Russian troops from Catherine the Great to swiftly crush the American rebellion. [1, 2]
The Impact: Catherine's firm refusal forced Britain to look elsewhere for mercenaries, eventually hiring less effective German Hessian troops. [1, 2]
The Result: This scramble for manpower delayed Britain’s major military counter-offensive in America until August 1776. This critical window of several months gave George Washington’s infant Continental Army the time it desperately needed to organize, train, dig defenses, and secure early supplies of gunpowder. It also allowed the Patriots to build the political momentum necessary to boldly issue the Declaration of Independence. [3]
2. Disarming Britain's Most Powerful Weapon (1780–1783)
Britain’s greatest advantage was the Royal Navy, which it used to impose a suffocating blockade on North American ports. When Russia formed the First League of Armed Neutrality in 1780, it shattered Britain’s naval strategy. [4, 5]
Total Diplomatic Isolation: By uniting major European powers (including Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Austria) into a defensive pact, Russia effectively told Britain: If you board our ships or enforce a paper blockade, you will be at war with all of Europe simultaneously. Britain simply could not afford to fight the rest of Europe alongside France, Spain, and the Americans. [6, 7, 8]
Protecting the French and Spanish Supply Lines: Because the British navy had to back off from aggressively searching and seizing cargo on neutral European ships, materials could flow freely into France and Spain. Those countries, in turn, funneled the naval supplies, artillery, and ammunition directly to the fleets that fought alongside American forces—culminating in the decisive French naval blockade at the Battle of Yorktown. [2, 7, 9]
Exposing British Weakness: Desperate to break Russia's stance, Britain secretly offered to give Catherine the Great the valuable Mediterranean island of Minorca if she would ally with them. Catherine rejected the bribe and exposed the offer to the world, humiliating Britain and proving to other European powers that the British war effort was failing. [1, 5]
Ultimately, Russia's actions ensured that Great Britain faced total European isolation, stretching its resources to a breaking point and making American independence inevitable. [8, 10]
Would you like to learn more about how France and Spain used these open trade routes to supply the Continental Army, or explore how Great Britain tried to retaliate against other members of the league?
Q.- Yes, please detail.
A.- France and Spain leveraged open European trade corridors to maintain their fleets, while Great Britain launched the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War to retaliate against neutral shippers. [1, 2, 3]
How France and Spain Exploited Open Trade Routes
The First League of Armed Neutrality protected neutral shipping heading into European ports. Because Britain dared not stop Scandinavian, Prussian, or Russian vessels carrying non-contraband materials, France and Spain secured critical resources to wage war: [4, 5]
* Securing Baltic Naval Stores: 18th-century warships required massive quantities of timber, pitch, hemp for rope, and flax for canvas—resources heavily concentrated in the Baltic Sea. The League ensured that French and Spanish shipyards received an uninterrupted supply of these materials without British interception. [4, 5]
* Enabling Massive Naval Deployments: With their domestic shipyards fully supplied, the French and Spanish fleets expanded rapidly. This industrial surge allowed the French Navy to deploy the fleet commanded by the [Comte de Grasse](https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/magnitudes.../) to block the Chesapeake Bay, cutting off Lord Cornwallis and securing American victory at Yorktown. [2, 6, 7, 8]
* Channeling Secret American Shipments: Shielded European supply lines enabled France and Spain to safely organize aid behind commercial shell companies, notably Rodrigue Hortalez et Compagnie in France and the House of Gardoqui in Spain. These operations funneled thousands of muskets, millions of pounds of gunpowder, uniforms, and vital silver currency directly to George Washington’s forces. [1, 6, 7, 9, 10]
*Britain’s Retaliation: The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Great Britain understood that neutral shipping was effectively keeping the American war effort alive. However, taking direct action against Catherine the Great’s Russia or other major powers threatened to trigger a catastrophic continental war. Instead, Britain singled out the most vulnerable neutral trader: the Dutch Republic. [3, 4, 11]
* The St. Eustatius Chokepoint: The neutral Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius was the primary transit depot for gunpowder, arms, and trade goods entering the American colonies.
* Preemptive Declaration of War: In late 1780, when the Dutch formally moved to join the League of Armed Neutrality to gain Russian naval protection, Britain intercepted secret draft treaties between Amsterdam and the Americans. Before the Dutch could finalize their accession to the League, Britain preemptively declared war, starting the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in December 1780.
* The Crackdown: By making the Dutch official belligerents, Britain legally stripped them of neutral status. In February 1781, British Admiral George Rodney sacked St. Eustatius, seizing hundreds of merchant vessels and tens of millions of dollars in goods meant for America and its allies.
* The Strategic Backfire: While Britain succeeded in destroying Dutch commerce, the move widened the war even further. The Royal Navy was forced to divert dozens of warships to blockade the Dutch coast and seize colonies in the East and West Indies, fatally diluting British naval strength along the American coastline. [1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13]
If you would like to explore this further, we can look at the clandestine supply operations of the Gardoqui family, or delve into Admiral Rodney's raid on Sint Eustatius.
