How Did Britain Contribute To The American Revolution

The American Revolution resulted from rising tensions between the mother country, Britain, and the restless thirteen colonies. Through the twentieth century, colonial historians debated the magnitude of the causes leading to the American Revolution, historian T. H. Breen challenges in his writing the preconceived notion that Britain was static and constant. He argues that the active role Britain plays actually sparked the revolution, inferring that the term “American Revolution” is actually a misnomer since marked changes within Britain were more responsible for the political division. However, one can compare the impacts of British changes which led to reform to the impacts of American changes which led to a desire for independence, and he/she would see that the changes in America caused a greater and more radical response from the colonists. Although the major changes Britain underwent, increasing military …show more content…
When American historians shifted their focus away from the history abroad during the colonial era to a social and closer to home history, T. H. Breen reveals the transformations that Britain experienced and how they affected the colonists. In the 1960’s, historians such as Edmund Morgan placed the history of Britain aside because its depiction as an unchanging nation thus having little to no effect on colonists. However, Breen claims that this would be the easy explanation for who was responsible for the revolution, and instead he argues that Britain was dynamic and growing during the eighteenth century; three of the key developments he lists that occur in Britain are: a superior military, a consumer marketplace, a new social group, and a resurgence of nationalism. These three changes can be placed into two categories, the first two as changes that illicit only complaints from the colonists and the final change a request for reform. Britain gradually rose in military strength, but when