What if Britain quelled the American Rebellion? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Early modern era & beginning of the modern era. Exploration, enlightenment, industrialisation, colonisation & empire (1492 - 1914 CE).
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#14266300
On a rainy Fourth of July, I’ve been thinking of Britain….

I always felt the most damaging defeat in Great Britain’s (or England's) long illustrious history was their loss in the Revolutionary War. Neither the rout of Boudicca, the overthrow of Harold, nor even being beaten off the continent by a French peasant girl caused so much loss in potential and pride for Britain then losing North America and her abundant resources.

In the movie “Elizabeth (1998)”, I see Britain in Norfolk when Walsingham said to him, “You were the most powerful man[Kingdom] in England[the World]. And you could have been greater still, but you had not the courage to be loyal [to Empire], only the conviction of your own vanity[Liberalism].”

Without North America’s bounty, Britain was forced to rely on far flung lands filled with throngs of unruly foreign natives to fuel their growing empire. With the precedent of failure following her, Britain shied away from forcing a greater union among her native English speaking domains.

What if Britain won the revolutionary war and had tried most of America’s founding fathers for treason? Would we be celebrating Britain’s ascendency to hyper power status today instead of the United States? Instead of begging slavishly to America for cooperation, could she have simply ordered it?

Now imagine a Britain with the undivided manpower and resources of North America and Australia; would she be the USA of today, or have transformed into something else entirely?
Last edited by Eros on 04 Jul 2013 21:03, edited 2 times in total.
#14266302
What if Britain won the revolutionary war and had tried most of America’s founding fathers for treason? Would we be celebrating Britain’s ascendency to hyper power status today instead of the United States? Instead of begging slavishly to America for cooperation, could she have simply ordered it?

Our colony would have become more populous, richer and more powerful than the mother country - the tail would have started wagging the dog, and Britain would have ended up as a de facto client state of its North American 'colony'. Losing America was the best thing that could have happened, from our own point of view as well as the Americans'. It was a blessing in disguise.
#14266312
Potemkin wrote:Our colony would have become more populous, richer and more powerful than the mother country - the tail would have started wagging the dog, and Britain would have ended up as a de facto client state of its North American 'colony'.


Wait that's not what happened
#14266317
Potemkin wrote:Our colony would have become more populous, richer and more powerful than the mother country - the tail would have started wagging the dog, and Britain would have ended up as a de facto client state of its North American 'colony'.


How do you know that? Perhaps the British would not have conquered the midwest and the West Coast and populated these areas with migrants from all over the world. Maybe there would still be a considerable Spanish/Mexican presence and some kind of Native American federated nation state to the west of the British held territories. Like Canada and Australia the "American" colony might be large and influential but not enough to overshadow the homeland.

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