Britain lost its 13 American colonies to independence in part because its military was busy protecting its sugar islands, many historians have argued. As opposed to the slaves working plantations in the U.S. South, Africans on Caribbean sugar plantations outnumbered their European owners by a wide margin. The British planters lived in constant fear of revolt and demanded soldiers for protection. Several decisive battles of the Revolutionary War would have turned out differently had Britain thrown its full might behind the war, experts