Was American independence from Britain inevitable?

Independence was NOT inevitable. Quite the contrary. A British victory would have enabled them to turn the American colonies into another Ireland, with a fake aristocracy and a standing army to keep order. As early as 1775, the British were pushing the line that the Americans weren't really English. read more

Also, to keep the colonies in line, the British parliament enacted a series of coercive acts. The colonial legislatures were well aware that similar acts in Ireland reduced those British subjects to a status that was closer to slavery. In the case of Ireland, their independence from the British crown as 700 years in the making. Far from inevitable. read more

American independence was inevitable, but victory in the American Revolution was not. The American colonies were filling up quickly and building a distinctly American culture. After the French were expelled from the West and Canada, the American colonists did not “need” the British any more. read more

Had American independence not been inevitable then a political settlement would have been found between 1765 and 1775. It was not. In fairness to the imperial administrators and politicians who 'lost' the colonies, they were confronting an unprecedented political, economic and diplomatic challenge in seeking to govern the empire and balance the books in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War. read more