by Charles Mitri

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: August 12, 2011

It's a topic that has been analyzed, perused, dissected and mulled over by anyone who has ever taken a course in causes in American History. Why did England-back in the day, the greatest military power since the Roman Legions-lose the American Revolution?

It is generally agreed that England made a number of crucial mistakes prior to Lexington and Concord that led to the Revolution. Some point to the debt England incurred after the French & Indian War. Some say the English never should have ousted the French from North America which resulted in a vastly reduced threat to England's colonists. Others claim that the English army fought one too many wars in a very short time span, locking horns with the French from 1754-1763 and then taking on the colonists from 1775-1783. That's a lot of fighting for some very tired soldiers who probably wanted nothing more than to go home. But the seeming lynchpin that led to war seems to be a series of laws passed by the British designed to tax and control the colonies. All valid points but still two questions remain: 1) Was the American Revolution avoidable? 2) If war wasn't unavoidable, what steps could the English have taken to win?

First some background. In the years prior to the Revolution, the English Parliamnet passed several laws to pay off their debts from the French & Indian War. The first of these laws was the Stamp Act which required colonists to have all legal documents, newspapers and even playing cards to be stamped. Naturally this angered the colonists who had to pay a fee for this stamp. Mistake number two was the Quartering Act-one of four laws that made up the Intolerable Acts. This law required colonists to house and feed English troops in their own homes. The third mistake was the Tea Act which taxed tea-a very popular drink in colonial America. This further angered the colonists and eventually led to the Boston Tea Party. But the coup de grasse were the Intolerable Acts, a series of laws to punish Bostonians for their part in the Boston Tea Party.

What steps could have been taken to avoid war? For starters, George III could have shared the cost of the French & Indian War with the colonists. Yes it would have taken longer to pay off his war debt, but by the same token he would have avoided the Revolution which ended up costing him more money. The Quartering Act was a horrendous mistake. Bullying and cajoling will only work for so long. Forcing the colonists to provide the army with food and housing

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