Excerpt from Saratoga National Historical Park, New York Abroad, the battles served immeasurably to increase the military prestige of American arms, while at home they greatly strengthened the fighting morale and discouraged loyalist opposition. In their broad aspects'the two battles of Saratoga may be considered to mark definitely the turning point of the American Revolution in that the result brought to the cause of the hard-pressed-colonists the assistance of France, Spain, and Holland, thereby greatly increasing the-probability of eventually winning independence. To a hesitant, vacillating France awaiting the opportune moment to strike a telling blow at the British, Saratoga brought the decision for intervention - a decision which previous diplo matic negotiations had been unable to obtain. The active entrance of France into the war in june 1778, provided the financial, military, and naval support without which the American cause would have been practically hopeless. Though three more years of fighting were necessary in order to bring ultimate victory at Yorktown, Saratoga furnished the physical and psychological impetus which brightened a desperate cause at a moment when failure would have been disastrous. Without the success of American arms at Saratoga, it is difficult to see how the struggle could long have been continued. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.