Aftermath: The Revolutionary Era
Through a patriotic lens, there has been a tendency to see the American Revolution as the paramount event on the road to freedom. Yet, when one considers how the Seven Years' War set events in motion that profoundly shifted the balance of power between the colonizing powers, this conflict takes on much more preeminence. In the settling post-war dust, England emerged as the world’s superpower, while France was largely non-existent in the Western Hemisphere. Alan Taylor keenly points out that,
...within thirteen years of the treaty of peace, thirteen Atlantic seaboard colonies
would revolt to wage a long war for their independence. That shocking conflict
between the colonies and the mother country developed from strains initiated by
winning the Seven Years’ War. The conquest of Canada deprived the mainland
colonists and the British of a common enemy that had united them in the past.
Victory invited the British to redefine the empire and to increase the colonists’
burdens. But victory also emboldened colonists to defy British demands because
they no longer needed protection from the French.30
This conflict resulted not only in France’s support of the fledgling revolution, but also in New Spain’s securing of its empire via the advent of the mission system around the time of Lewis and Clark’s expedition (1804 - 1806). The aftereffect of all this strife was a “world turned upside down” where England and Spain had the lion’s share of North America and France was left with a few Caribbean holdings such as Haiti, Martinique, and St. Barts. These escalating incendiary events would lead to the American Revolution. Moreover, the outcome of the Seven Years' War drove France to avenge its losses by supporting the patriots in their quest for freedom. And as is so often the case, it began with taxes.
The colonists had started this costly engagement that led to a crushing post-war debt of 137 million pounds. Moreover, since some felt a standing army was required to keep peace after the suppression of Pontiac’s Rebellion, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Grenville, felt the burden of colonial defense must be shared by the colonists.31 However, they were never party to whether the soldiers should be stationed among them or how they should share in the cost of their own defense. According to Taylor, “Instead of seeing the new permanent army in North America as a source of protection, colonial leaders felt threatened as those troops became both the pretext for raising new taxes and the means for enforcing them.”31
And yet, as “repeated usurpations” pushed both sides towards war, France later resurfaced in North American affairs, this time in the role of colonial ally. Considering that France’s monarch had much to lose by stirring up public foment, France’s involvement in the Revolutionary War obviously had considerably less to do with freedom than revenge. As Alexander Hamilton astutely pointed out in his usual acerbic style,
The primary motives of France for the assistance which she gave us was obviously
to enfeeble a hated and powerful rival by breaking into pieces the British
Empire...He must be a fool who can be credulous enough to believe that a despotic
court aided a popular revolution from regard to liberty or friendship to the principles
of such a revolution.32
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