Was the American Revolution Avoidable?

If Britain would have stopped after the Stamp act and not passed the Declaratory Acts, they may have halted the fomenting war.  Granted, Britain had mounted up an enormous debt with fighting the French and Indian War, but pursuing a policy of taxation proved to be a move to drive a wedge in-between what should have been a symbiotic relationship.  Nevertheless, if Britain would have rescinded the Stamp Acts and not have enacted new laws in response then the war could have been avoided right then and there.  This is because at this point the groups did not exist to organize and deal with a power such as Britain.

Unfortunately, the passage of laws (and taxes) did not stop.  In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. They put a light import tax on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea. British officials, faced with a breakdown of law and order, landed two regiments of troops in the colonies in 1768.  The catalyst for the revolution started on March 5, 1770, a crowd of 60 townspeople attacked 10 redcoats and the redcoats opened fired on the civilians.  The colonists threw snowballs and called them lobster backs.  As a result of the action, five colonists were killed and 6 were wounded.  They would become the first casualties of the forthcoming American Revolution.

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Everything came to a head when on December 16th, 1773 a group of Americans ‘rebels’ dressed Native Americans boarded British ships docked in Boston harbor.  They dumped the tea into the sea.  Reacting to this, in 1774, Parliament punished the people of Massachusetts for their actions in the Boston Tea Party. Parliament passed laws, known as the Intolerable Acts, which restricted colonists’ rights.  They basically took over control, from the colonists, of Massachusetts. The laws made restrictions on town meetings, and stated that enforcing officials who killed colonists in the line of duty would be sent to Britain for trial (where it was assumed they would be acquitted of their charges). One such law was the Boston Port Act. It closed the Boston harbor until damages were paid and order could be ensured.

The colonies, during this time, kept open consultative bodies, known as Committees of Correspondence.  They allowed the colonies to communicate easily between one another.  These Committees of Correspondence morphed, in 1774, into the First Continental Congress. They met in Philadelphia in order to redress colonial grievances over the Intolerable Acts. The 13 colonies, excluding Georgia, sent 55 men to the convention.  The congress drew up papers to this end.

In conclusion, the British, through their actions and passage of unfair taxes (towards the American colonists) and laws designed to anger the colonists did more to hasten the outbreak of revolt then any American could have wanted or predicted.  It must be noted that only 1/3rd of Americans wanted to revolt while 2/3rd either wanted to stay loyal to the crown or did not have an opinion.

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