British naval supremacy dictated American defensive strategy at New York.

Evidence

Accordingly, in January, Washington detached his second in command, an English-born, retired British Army colonel, Charles Lee, then serving as a rebel general, to New York City with orders to begin preparations for its defense. … Lee wrote to Washington in February, “What to do with the city, I own it puzzles me, it is so encircle’d with deep navigable water, that whoever commands the Sea must command the Town.” Both of them knew that the patriots could not contest the British for control of the sea. Instead, Lee proposed installing harbor defenses and fortifying the unoccupied bluffs on Long Island across the East River from the city. If, as Adams wrote, New York served as the key to subduing the colonies, then Lee saw these “Brooklyn Heights” as the key to a land-based defense of New York City, which then consisted of a diverse population of about 25,000 people living at the south end of York (now Manhattan) Island. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 149

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the course’s recurring theme of how military and geographic constraints shape legal-political deliberation about liberty and self-government. — connects to: British imperial dominance depended on naval supremacy. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 391; New York’s geography made it a vulnerable site for defense
• DEFINE: Explains why ‘Brooklyn Heights,’ later a byword, was originally a military defensive position chosen because command of New York required land-based fortification against sea power.

Broader Connections

• British imperial dominance depended on naval supremacy. #expands (0.85) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 391
• New York’s geography made it a vulnerable site for defense #expands (0.80)