page_title: American Revolutionary War
section_title: Hessians
hierarchical_section_title: American Revolutionary War / Analysis of combatants / Great Britain / Hessians
caption_attribution_description: English: Eighteenth-century illustration of two Hessian soldiers: Erste Officiers [= Offiziers] Unif[orm] ("first officer's uniform") &amp; Gemeiner ("private").
context_page_description: The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence, was initiated by the thirteen original colonies in Congress against the Kingdom of Great Britain over their objection to Parliament's direct taxation and its lack of colonial representation.
  From their founding in the 17th century, the colonies were largely left to govern themselves. As conflict with New France expanded, the costs of their defense increased; after the eviction of France from North America in 1763, Parliament and the colonies disputed how these expenses should be paid. Measures like the 1765 Stamp Act to increase government revenues provoked unrest that culminated in the 1773 Boston Tea Party. When Parliament responded by imposing punitive measures on Massachusetts, the other twelve colonies set up the First Continental Congress, which agreed to boycott British goods.
  In June 1775, the Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington to create a Continental Army and oversee the capture of Boston. When their Olive Branch Petition was rejected, Congress sponsored an unsuccessful attack on British Quebec, before passing the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
context_section_description: In 1775, without sufficient popular support at home to supply enlistments for the British Army overseas, London had to look elsewhere to find the number of troops required put down an expanding revolt in the Thirteen Colonies. Britain unsuccessfully attempted to secure 20,000 mercenaries from Russia, and then it was denied use of the Scots Brigade from the Dutch Republic. Parliament finally managed to negotiate treaties of subsidy with certain mercenary German princes in exchange for auxiliary troops to serve in America. In total, 29,875 troops were hired for British service from six German states.
  The presence of foreign soldiers speaking German-only caused considerable anxiety among the colonists, both Patriot and Loyalist. Newspaper accounts viewed them as brutal mercenaries. It was also true that diaries of Hessian soldiers voiced objections to occasionally bad treatment of colonists at the hands of the British Army. Some officers had ordered property destruction and prisoner execution.
  British soldiers were themselves often contemptuous in their treatment of Hessian troops, despite orders from General Howe that "the English should treat the Germans as brothers". The order only began to have any real effect when the Hessians learned to speak a minimal degree of English, which was seen as a prerequisite for the British troops to accord them any respect.
caption: Hessian uniforms of the Leibregiment deployed to America
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