The American Revolutionary War
In 1775, London’s high-handed exploitation of her colonies for tax revenue began to look like a very expensive mistake.
1775-1783
King George III 1760-1820
In 1775, London’s high-handed exploitation of her colonies for tax revenue began to look like a very expensive mistake.
1775-1783
King George III 1760-1820
The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) saw thirteen British colonies in North America win independence as the United States of America. For too long, they had sweated in a wretched trade zone created to fill London’s Treasury with gold and line the pockets of her cronies, and it was time for it to stop.
THROUGHOUT the eighteenth century, London had confined her thirteen American colonies within a trade zone, taxing trade and regulating markets in a bid to pay down the National Debt and boost the struggling East India Company, a government-backed agency. As the Colonies had no MPs, they could not influence Westminster’s policy.
In 1773, protestors dumped a consignment of the Company’s tea into Boston harbour, and King George III’s Government responded with force, provoking full-scale revolt.* The first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19th, 1775.*
The following December, the recently-formed Continental Congress, the rebels’ government, disavowed Westminster’s sovereignty, and delegates signed a Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. Defeat for the fledgling Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania, on September 11th, 1777 was swiftly followed by victory, when on October 7th the British were forced into a humiliating surrender at Saratoga, New York. London hastily offered to recognise Congress and repeal the offending legislation, but too late.
The Government justified taxing the Americans by pointing out that the National Debt reflected the cost of defending them in The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). The East India Company’s flagging fortunes were in part a consequence of the corruption and bad fiscal policy which had recently exacerbated The Great Bengal Famine, and irreparably damaged the Company’s public reputation.
See The Boston Tea Party.