Waters Of Chaos: The Roles of Rivers and Waterways in North American Warfare

Since the dawn of human civilization, rivers and waterways have defined world history, shaping the destinies of empires in Europe, Africa, and Asia. But it was in North America, which possesses more navigable inland waterways than the rest of the world combined, that people fought against one another and the environment, manipulating the rivers and waterways of the continent to topple world empires, create new nations, and shape warfare for a century. Historians and scholars have mostly ignored or downplayed the importance of these waterways. This thesis argues that from the outset of the French and Indian War in 1754 until the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, the rivers and waterways of North America played significant roles in warfare and thus affected the outcome of not just individual battles and conflicts, but the history of the continent and the world. Broken into four themes, the rivers and waterways of North America take precedent, showing how they affected warfare throughout the continent’s history and how armies and empires utilized these avenues for transportation, paths of retreat, military barriers, and as centerpieces in defensive and offensive operations to win control of the continent and forever transform history.