The British were ripe
for losing their colonies. The British Parliament was an ocean away and
swimming in war debt.
The frontier nature of
living in the colonies forced everybody to become marksmen to put food on the
table. Colonists had fought Indians for
200 years and learned gorilla war tactics. A large number of colonists actually
served in the British Army in militias during the French Indian wars and many
had command experience. They knew the reputation of the British Army was
overstated and they knew how to beat them, because they knew the weaknesses in
their tactics.
The colonies were
stabile by the late 1700s and the founders saw an opportunity to form their own
sovereign nation based on the needs of what would be their citizens.
America was all about
freedom and opportunity and the British Parliament wanted to turn it into a
cash cow. The British Empire was huge and was too large for them to be able to
hang on to all of it. France and Spain
continued to compete for colonies across the globe and the British were
strapped. We saw this when the Roman Empire began to contract in 300 BC.
By coincidence, the
Founders had read the freedom oriented philosophers and were like-minded about
how a government could be established to protect freedom and opportunity for
its citizens. The 13 colonies were all governed by local land owners and
professionals and that was working.
All that was left to
do was to give the British a chance to be “reasonable. The Founders listed their grievances and
presented this list to the Parliament. They ignored it. But they had fair
warning.
The Founders then
embarked on a propaganda campaign aimed at the British Parliament and King
George. The free press was born. Colonists knew that the accusations in this
propaganda were true, because they witnessed abuses daily. The tax evasion
colonists had engaged in easily went underground when the British Army tried to
root it out, but it didn’t go away.
France and Spain were
rivals of the British Empire and they were happy to support the British
colonial rebellion and they did. The American Revolutionaries were cash
strapped, but enough citizens came to support the revolution that its Armies
held together.
After the French
Indian War was won in 1763, the British Parliament issued a torrent of new
taxes and impositions from 1763 through 1775. The Boston Massacre occurred in
1770. The Declaration of Independence was posted in July 1776. The Revolutionary War lasted from the battle
of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 to September 1883 when the peace treaty
was signed. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in October 1881 and the
evacuations of British soldiers continued through 1882 and 1883.
The acquisition of
land in the American Colonies created Indian Wars and known risks in exchange
for the possibility of owning land. The prospect of owning land was in Europe
was unlikely and farmers were attracted to the American Colonies. Immigrating
to America in the 1600s was brutal, but by 1700 survival seemed feasible.
America’s British Colonies were organized into States from the Northeast to the
border of Spanish Florida. The British Colony of Georgia was established in
1732.
Britain was embroiled
in wars in Europe during the 1700s and amassed a debt of 140 million pounds by
1763. The British Parliament thought the American Colonies should pay more
taxes on goods to pay for the British Army expenses of the French Indian War
and other Indian Wars. Colonists had long avoided paying British taxes and were
being pressed to comply. The Brits decided to “oppress” the colonists to
extract the taxes. This turned out to be a big mistake.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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