What impact did the Seven Years War have on the American Revolution?
score:11
The North American version of the Seven Years' War was the French and Indian War. And yes, it did set the stage for the American Revolution for at least three reasons:
- It provided a casus belli. The French and Indian War cost a lot of money, which the British tried to recoup by taxing the "Americans" of the Thirteen Colonies. The result was a battle cry of "no taxation without representation."
- It provided "grist for the mill." The Americans got a taste of fighting (and victory), and decided to test their wings against the mother country. The war also helped train a number of highly capable American officers, including William Prescott (Bunker Hill), Daniel Morgan (Saratoga and Cowpens), and above all, George Washington. A number of foreign officers schooled in the Seven Years' War, such as Baron Friedrich von Steuben, Baron Johan (Jean) deKalb, and John Peter Muhlenburg also officered the American armies.
- It set the stage for a favorable "reversal of alliances." The French and Indian War had pitted them against the British and the Americans. The American Revolution pitted the British, (and some Indians), against the Americans, French, and some French allies such as Spain and the Netherlands.
Upvote:7
In Kevin Phillips' The Cousin's Wars he puts a slightly different spin on the influence of the Seven Years' War on the Revolution. After some false starts, the British Army and the Colonials achieved a relation of working together to win the war...the Army would ask the colonies for money, or supplies or troops directly to the legislatures and they would figure out the hows and whys and get it done. They assumed this responsible acting on their part would be rewarded by its continuation going forward.
Hence when Parliament, who was not involved in any of this, rejected this notion and started cutting out the Colonial Legislatures as middlemen with the finance bills, the powerful Colonials who made up these groups hit the ceiling. As a means of making money, these bills and taxes were trivial - as everyone has noted at the time and since. But they were very effective at signalling that the English legislature was going to deny powerful Colonials any say in how their part of the world would be run, which was very short sighted on their part. The two sides continued to talk past each other for the next few decades until the point of revolution was reached.
Upvote:15
There is an unobvious connection pointed out by Tarle: Before the Seven Years War the major threat for the colonists was the French in Canada who could conceivably mount an invasion and conquer the colonies (who hardly relished the prospect). The only sure protection against that was Britain. Once Britain had vanquished France and removed the ever-present threat of external invasion, it itself became the colonists' biggest problem.
Think of it as a Maslow-pyramid thing.
Where I differ from Tarle's analysis is that I don't think it was pre-determined from that point that the colonies should become independent. A touch of Burkean magnanimity and Britain might have kept America. But let's stop there, I am sliding into counterfactuals.
More post
- 📝 Are modern handguns a major reason for democratization?
- 📝 What were the Government Press Prosecutions of 1858 and why did they occur?
- 📝 Why was Calcutta a node in the opium smuggling network prior to the Opium Wars in China?
- 📝 Did firing trials of pre-WW1 British dreadnoughts involve actually firing at them?
- 📝 What did the Russian ambassador to Japan do during his trip to London?
- 📝 During the Battle of Britain, what AA defenses were available, and where?
- 📝 Meaning and usage of "Child of State"?
- 📝 Why was Zabrze renamed Hindenburg O.S in 1915?
- 📝 In the 19th century, do we know how armor changed with respect to guns of the time?
- 📝 How did Farragut know he could get his fleet through the Confederate line of "torpedos" at Mobile Bay?
- 📝 Codification of Sharia by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century
- 📝 How did Allies secure southern flank during "Race to the Rhine"?
- 📝 Do we have any surviving texts by Romano-Celtic authors?
- 📝 Can you identify the "Tank Limo"?
- 📝 How much gold did humans possess by century starting with Neolithic?
- 📝 Was Christianity always the #1 religion since it started, or were there others?
- 📝 Why did US Navy WW2 torpedoes detonate at the end of their run?
- 📝 Were concentration camp guards allowed to talk about their work at home?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the British Parliament was reluctant to deal with the Nassau Pirates because they made a convenient bogeyman?
- 📝 When was the last moment that Dutch, German and Swiss German were the same language?
- 📝 Which company offered this aircraft interior in the 60s?
- 📝 Have there been negative large-scale long term effects from vaccines?
- 📝 Refugee crises before 20th century
- 📝 What happened to US's Lend-Lease machinery given to the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Were there more robberies of "commercial" or "personal" nature in 19th century in USA?
- 📝 Was there an ancient cult of worshiping one's own reflection?
- 📝 If the heir to a Kingdom is called Crown Prince, what is the heir to a Duchy called?
- 📝 Historical tax revenue as a proportion of GDP
- 📝 Is it true that Plato travelled till Ganges river?
- 📝 Manufacturing plans of historic industrial or military goods
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What impact did the Seven Years War have on the American Revolution?
- 📝 What capabilities did Southern soldiers in the American Civil War have to get news about the North?
- 📝 What was the Seven Years War called at first?
- 📝 What impact did Trotsky's armoured train have on the Russian civil war?
- 📝 What uniforms did each of the American Civil War regiment wear during First Bull Run / First Manassas
- 📝 What effect did the Mafia have during World War 2?
- 📝 What did sectionalism have to do with the American civil war?
- 📝 What rights did women have in Switzerland in the first few years of the 20th century?
- 📝 What economic incentives (if any) did France have to aid the American army during the revolution?
- 📝 What impact did the migration of Germanic tribes have on languages in the rest of Europe?
- 📝 Did the "loss" of the American territories in the first third of the 19th century have any impact on Spanish intellectual discourse?
- 📝 What impact did the rocket inventions of the German rockeeters have on WW2?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 What advantages did Catholic missionaries to the Indians have over Protestant missionaries in old Oregon Country?
- 📝 What effect did the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir have on Great Britain's international relations during WW2?
- 📝 What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 When did the American War of 1812 actually end?
- 📝 What did the top minds of the late 17th century have to say about Salem witch trials?
- 📝 What effect did the Bronze Age collapse have on India?
- 📝 Which European countries did not have a revolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution and why?
- 📝 What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?
- 📝 To what degree did women participate in the air war during WW2?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Did war chariots ever actually have blades on the wheel hubs?
- 📝 What are the French gains after the American Revolutionary War
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 What led to American air superiority over the Axis in World War II
- 📝 Did the Reformation have any impact in Orthodox countries?