The American Revolution was more of a loss for England than it was a victory for the Americans. Britain started a chain of events that resulted in the Declaration of Independence long before independence was an option. The colonists were able to take advantage of England's economic, governmental, and military blunders. Because of these mistakes, the "victory" for colonists in the Revolutionary War was actually more of a loss for England.
A main reason why this viewpoint can be taken is because of all the power that England lost due to the colonies gaining independence. Having America under the realm of the greatest nation in the world was a great advantage for both sides. However, after the Declaration of Independence, England lost a whole lot more then the colonists had gained. England, which had been heralded as the most powerful empire the world had ever seen, was seen after the Revolutionary War as a country with many weaknesses.
All political, governmental, and military power it once held was the biggest causality for England.
England had incurred enormous debt from the Seven Years War. To raise revenue and pay off their these, Parliament turned to taxing their own citizens and the American colonists. Colonists had to pay larger taxes for sugar, stamps, licenses, textiles, coffee, indigo, newspapers, and legal papers (The History Channel).
The colonists maintained that the Sugar Act constituted 'taxation without representation,' since their elected representatives sat in the colonial legislatures, not in Parliament. Furthermore, [George] Grenville's [chancellor of the exchequer in Parliament] overall program to extract more revenue from the colonies was perceived by them [the colonists] as an economic threat, in view of the business decline America had experienced since the war. (World Book, 2002)
Because the British enforced these taxes on the colonists, Americans began to...
Great job!
I really liked the way this essay was written. Both positive and negative sides to the war were shown with many back up statements provided.
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