A Royal Paine

Abstract

From the early 17th century to 1763, America flourished as a colony within the British Empire. It reaped advantages that included access to British worldwide trade under mercantilism, exchanges with British intellectuals, and the protection of Britain’s military. America was content under British rule because they could enjoy the benefits of salutary neglect under King George III’s (1760-1820) mild monarchy. This provided the colony with opportunities that included local governance with minimal interference and economic freedom of their own trade institutions. These salutary benefits substantially contributed to the colony developing its own independent identity. In 1763, Britain raised taxation on America and increasingly centralized control over their colonies after the Seven Years’ War drained Britain’s reserves. American revolts against British taxation without representation escalated in 1773 with the Boston Tea Party. In 1774, Britain created the Intolerable Act to punish revolters in Boston by instating military troops across the region. At the peak of American anticolonialism in 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a revolutionary pamphlet that advocated for American independence. As Common Sense increasingly gained traction in America, British authors including James Chalmers, Rev, Charles Inglis, James Gillray, and Rusticus began publishing responses against Common Sense. This paper compares the American and the British perspectives to identify the key ideological differences that contributed to the American Revolution. The paper concludes that the American Revolution primarily emerged due to the ideologically different definitions of what constitutes good governance and representation.