Duncan's 1777 appointments initially belonged to a conflict the Royal Navy could treat as relatively limited at sea. The American revolutionary naval forces achieved notable raids and publicity, but only a few ships were active at any one time. French entry in 1778 and Spanish entry in 1779 transformed that calculation by forcing Britain to confront its two largest European maritime rivals across several theaters. Coalition entry turned a low-intensity naval commitment into a global war faster than the fleet could mobilize.
Notable Point · 44:26-46:00
From American naval raiding to a global coalition war
The widening American Revolutionary War shows how a manageable naval problem became a worldwide conflict when France and Spain entered against Britain.