The American War of Independence (1775-1783) spelled crisis for the British West Indies. Trade embargos between rebelling and loyal territories, losses to American pirates and hostilities with other European states left the Crown’s tropical Atlantic colonies short of the imported supplies that normally sustained their populations and commerce. Historians have studied the dynamics and consequences of these developments in considerable detail, at both regional and local scales, but have tended to focus on economic, social and political dimensions of the subject matter. Although some investigations have highlighted that climate variability compounded agricultural and subsistence problems in certain locations, the role of climate has rarely been subject to the same level of scrutiny. The present paper addresses this theme by focusing on the Lesser Antillean island of Antigua and the severe drought which gripped the colony during the war period. Through extensive analysis of original, largely unpublished archival sources, the implications of deficient rainfall for human livelihoods, fiscal stability and governmental crisis management are examined. By supplementing findings with evidence from other episodes of warfare which coincided with extreme climate phenomena in the late 1700s and early 1800s, it is argued that successive years of drought were pivotal in defining the severe human and economic losses sustained in Antigua during the American independence conflict. The critical agency of this weather event must, however, be understood as the product of its dynamic interaction with the precarious backdrop of a colonial regime under profound socio-economic and geopolitical stress.

中文翻译：

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革命时代的干旱与灾难：美国独立战争期间的殖民地安提瓜

美国独立战争（1775-1783）给英属西印度群岛带来了危机。叛乱领土和忠诚领土之间的贸易禁运、美国海盗的损失以及与其他欧洲国家的敌对行动，使得皇家的热带大西洋殖民地缺乏通常维持其人口和商业的进口供应。历史学家在区域和地方尺度上相当详细地研究了这些发展的动态和后果，但往往关注主题的经济、社会和政治层面。尽管一些调查强调，气候变化加剧了某些地区的农业和生计问题，但气候的作用很少受到同等程度的审查。本文件通过重点关注小安的列斯群岛安提瓜岛和战争期间席卷该殖民地的严重干旱来解决这一主题。通过对大部分未发表的原始档案资料的广泛分析，研究了降雨不足对人类生计、财政稳定和政府危机管理的影响。通过用 1700 年代末和 1800 年代初与极端气候现象同时发生的其他战争事件的证据来补充调查结果，有人认为连续多年的干旱对于确定美国独立冲突期间安提瓜遭受的严重人员和经济损失至关重要. 然而，这次天气事件的关键机构必须