British commanders attempted to reverse their floundering fortunes by launching a campaign in the South. There the British would find not just crops such as tobacco, rice and indigo that were vital to their economy, but stronger Loyalist support. With foreign wars requiring the redeployment of foot soldiers to other global hotspots, British military leaders planned to exploit the South's deep political, economic and racial divisions and enlist Loyalists and those enslaved on patriot plantations to their cause. The "Southern Strategy" transformed the American Revolution into a civil war. After Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, the war that started in the North effectively ended in the South.