Two Ways of Ending Empire
Most Americans like to think of the Revolutionary War in terms of taxes — after all, the refrain everyone is taught in school is “no taxation without representation.” However, like many things in history, that’s a bit of an oversimplification.
At the root of the colonists’ disagreement over taxes was the problem of empire.
Let’s give ourselves some context. In 1763, Britain acquired control of a large portion of southeastern Canada, including a massive strip of southern Quebec (in addition to establishing control over the Northwest Territories, Mississippi, and Alabama). That was fine — although the colonists were uncomfortable being so close to a colony swarming with Catholics — except that the war changed how Parliament and the king wanted to rule these far-off lands. (READ MORE: Biden Voters Get the Red Pill)
Until the 1750s, the colonies had a lot of autonomy. Now, Britain was interested in treating them like outposts of an extended empire with very little say in how they were run. That didn’t make the colonists very happy. After all, they still thought of themselves as Englishmen. So, England sent troops in.
Before a shot was fired or the Declaration of Independence was conceived, the colonists proposed a different form of empire. They wanted their own Parliament answering to King George III. Given that the British Parliament had just managed to take power away from the king, it wasn’t excited about that prospect. (READ MORE: We Must End the Democrats’ Failed Foreign Policy)
But what would have happened if things hadn’t escalated and the 13 colonies had stuck it out a little longer? Would they have been able to convince Britain to adopt their vision of the Empire?
Hypotheticals are a difficult thing to impose on history. But perhaps the colonies’ path to independence would have looked something like Canada’s.
Britain’s French colony remained a colony for another century before finally being recognized as a distinct “dominion” with a right to self-governance on July 1, 1867, with the passage of the British North American Act. That didn’t make Canada a sovereign nation (it didn’t have control of its constitution until 1987), but it did give it the ability to muster forces to construct a national railway system. (READ MORE: How Can People Be Shocked by Biden’s Performance?)
Canada’s 200-year process towards independence was likely too ponderous for the Founding Fathers — and arguably the British Parliament learned from the American experience and applied those lessons to Canada — so it’s difficult to say that the same thing would have happened in the U.S. without the Revolutionary War.
There’s more than one way to end an Empire.
This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way on July 1, 2024.
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