Essay from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, University of Heidelberg, course: British Institutions I, language: English, abstract: The loss of the American colonies was sealed with the end of the American War of Independence. When the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, England acknowledged the existence of the United States of America and their separation from Britain. The colonies were lost. Not only the then recently acquired new territories in the south but also the rich eastern colonies, the cradle of English colonization in North America.
Only twenty years earlier, the situation in the American colonies was in no way rebellious or revolutionary. On the contrary, the white population of the American colonies was the most lightly taxed and least oppressed people in the eighteenth-century Western world. Great Britain and its Empire were known throughout the world for being an example of stability, prosperity and liberty . So why did the situation change so severely and how did revolution emerge in North America? In other words: how did England lose its colonies? Many explanations can be found in literature dealing with the British Empire or the American War of Independence, but this essay, rather than looking for psychological or sociological explanations, will focus on the major political events which lit the fuse for revolution.
