What if britain won the revolutionary war

Their ideas revolved around the ideals of the Declaration of Independence: liberty, equality and justice. How did the Revolutionary War start and end? The Revolutionary War, also known as the U. War of Independence was the insurrection fought to impede the British government from exercising greater control over American colonies. Who fought in the Revolutionary War and who won? The American Revolution War was fought between 13 of Great Britain's North American colonies and the colonial government headed by the British rule.

The colonies fought together and were victorious when the British General Cornwallis surrendered and signed the Treaty of Paris. Is Africa the cradle of humanity? What happened to the two other men on Paul Revere's ride? Are there alternate universes?

Did a U. President rewrite the Bible? Sources Baack, Ben. March 5, Yale University Press. June 28, Cite This! Try Our Crossword Puzzle! What Is the Missing Number? Try Our Sudoku Puzzles! More Awesome Stuff. At the end of the war, thousands who helped the British were evacuated to freedom in Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and England. This is not to say the British were motivated by a desire to help slaves; of course they weren't.

But American slaves chose a side in the revolution, the side of the crown. They were no fools. They knew that independence meant more power for the plantation class that had enslaved them and that a British victory offered far greater prospects for freedom. Starting with the Proclamation of , the British colonial government placed firm limits on westward settlement in the United States. It wasn't motivated by an altruistic desire to keep American Indians from being subjugated or anything; it just wanted to avoid border conflicts.

But all the same, the policy enraged American settlers, who were appalled that the British would seem to side with Indians over white men. Instead, they viewed them as obstacles in the way of their dreams of land ownership and trading wealth. American independence made the proclamation void here. It's not void in Canada — indeed, there the proclamation is viewed as a fundamental document providing rights to self-government to First Nations tribes.

It's mentioned explicitly in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canada's Bill of Rights , which protects "any rights or freedoms that have been recognized by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, " for all aboriginal people. And, unsurprisingly, Canada didn't see Indian wars and removals as large and sweeping as occurred in the US.

They still committed horrible, indefensible crimes. Canada, under British rule and after, brutally mistreated aboriginal people, not least through government-inflicted famines and the state's horrific seizure of children from their families so they could attend residential schools.

But the country didn't experience a westward expansion as violent and deadly as that pursued by the US government and settlers. Absent the revolution, Britain probably would've moved into Indian lands.

But fewer people would have died. None of this is to minimize the extent of British and Canadian crimes against Natives. The population statistics are telling: 1. Given the fact that America is far more hospitable as an environment and has 10 times the non-aboriginal population, that's telling.

Independence also enabled acquisition of territory in the West through the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican-American War. That ensured that America's particularly rapacious brand of colonialism ensnared yet more native peoples. And while Mexico and France were no angels, what America brought was worse. Before the war, the Apache and Comanche were in frequent violent conflict with the Mexican government. But they were Mexican citizens. The US refused to make them American citizens for a century.

And then, of course, it violently forced them into reservations, killing many in the process. American Indians would have still, in all likelihood, faced violence and oppression absent American independence, just as First Nations people in Canada did. But American-scale ethnic cleansing wouldn't have occurred.

And like America's slaves, American Indians knew this. Most tribes sided with the British or stayed neutral; only a small minority backed the rebels. Generally speaking, when a cause is opposed by the two most vulnerable groups in a society, it's probably a bad idea. Well, you can imagine, that gave me a start. All the world knows that the American patriots lost their war of independence from England; that their army was shattered, that their leaders were either killed or driven into exile. We made a good bargain when we got Benedict Arnold to turn his coat, but we didn't do it soon enough.

If he hadn't been on the field that day, Burgoyne would have gone through [American General Horatio] Gates' army like a hot knife through butter. But Arnold hadn't been at Saratoga. I know; I have read much of the American War. Arnold was shot dead on New Year's Day of , during the storming of Quebec. A British minister marvels at a separate report from Bathurst:.

The United States of America, you will recall, was the style by which the rebellious colonies referred to themselves, in the Declaration of Philadelphia. The James Madison who is mentioned as the current President of the United States is now living, in exile, in Switzerland. Certainly British victory in the conflict was entirely plausible. Indeed, given the significant disparities in resources between the British and the colonists, such an outcome seemed not just possible but likely early on, and at numerous points during the conflict.

It is impossible to know with certainty what would have happened if the colonies had lost the War of Independence. Without documentary sources to work with, answers to these questions are speculative by nature. Nevertheless, it is possible to make some educated guesses about the nature and probability of different outcomes. Certainly the timing of the Patriot defeat would have had an important effect on the events that followed.