When the unique style of American warfare burst onto the

When the unique style of American warfare burst onto the international scene in the first world war, scholars began to ponder the historical development of American combat style. Colonial America's style of warfare was based on the European philosophy of war, but battles with Native Americans forced the colonial militias to create a uniquely American style by employing a guerrilla-like style of combat. Although all scholars acknowledge that, from their inception, American forces used a less restrained style of fighting, it is unclear to what level the American army broke away from the teachings of its European predecessors.

According to one account, as the American colonists began fighting with their Native American neighbors, they were forced to veer away from their European military training and use a rougher combat style better fit for fighting in the wilderness. The Americans' goal of war with the Native Americans was not to defeat a standing army but to incapacitate the Native Americans' capability to resist their colonization efforts. To achieve this aim, colonists attacked noncombatants and their property, means that contemporary European militants believed improper. As the fighting with the Native Americans became commonplace, colonial Americans began to perceive war in more absolute terms.

This historical account ignores important pieces of evidence that show the extent to which early Americans followed in the footsteps of their European military counterparts. A prime example of instilled European mores comes from Connecticut, one of the earliest colonies. The government of Connecticut refused military aid to its neighboring colony Massachusetts when the latter was engaged in a conflict considered below the civilized code of conduct with the Native Americans. George Washington, at the time of the Revolution the foremost general in the American army, structured the Continental Army as a copy of the British army he was fighting, even though the American military lacked the resources or time to bring its recruits to the latter's professional level. Washington's memoirs detail his fear of violating the rules of war and thereby tarnishing America's dignity.

Q1: The author of the passage uses the word contemporary in order to:

a. denounce the immoral practices of the colonial Americans


b. show that the European criticism of the American colonists is based on current European values


c. indicate that colonial American style of warfare was unlike that of any other army in history


d. indicate that the judgment levied upon the American colonists was based on the mores of the time


e. emphasize that later generations of Europeans found the acts of colonial Americans improper