If you could eliminate one person from history...who would it be?

[ieoeja]

409. I'm okay with your overall point (that we would have ended up a better place to live). However...

The colonies were never under serious threat from the French. The Brits wanted Canada, not the other way around. And taxes had very little to do with the American Revolution.

King George III's ministers felt the colonists were too independant. So they decided to crack the whip. Ironically, odds are the American Revolution would never have happened had the Court not taken steps to prevent it occuring!

Four words : Black Hole of Calcutta. Yes, that was in India and occurred after the American Revolution. But it was on the immediate heels thereof under pretty much the same sort of management. This, not taxes, was the sort of things that led to the American Revolution.

British Army : sent to control the colonists, not protect them. Disbanded colonial rangers so colonies had no advance warning of Pontiac's Rebellion. Took over negotiations after colonial militas, not the British Army, put down the uprising. Result : thousand of colonists dead. British Army handed over children of raped colonists, generally viewed by colonists as the "silver-lining" in that tragedy, to the Indians to raise instead of allowing their mothers to keep them as had been done by the colonies in the past.

Stamp Act : no document in the colonies is legal unless using the same stamped paper required in Great Britain. Sort of like a notary public today. Perfectly reasonable and not that costly. Except that the paper was manufactured by a single company licensed to do so, and the law went into affect long before that company could double output and setup a worldwide distribution system. The Court could have simply put the law on hold, but they wanted to crack that whip. Result : economic and social chaos. No contracts were valid. Little Johnny couldn't marry Little Susie whom he HAD to marry, so Little Susie became a pariah for having a child out of wedlock.

White Pines Act : all white pine trees reserved for the use of the British Navy as masts. This was an old law which fell into disuse once the Brits realized how massive North America was. But they wanted to crack that whip. So they started enforcing it. No new fields could be cleared, etc. And most pines were unsuitable for masts. But the Brits refused to make exceptions.

Sugar Act : Brits wanted to help their sugar growers by prohibiting the importation of French sugar and allowing the sugar growers to produce rum. French wanted to help their domestic distillation industry by prohibiting the manufacture of rum in French colonies. Result : French colonies had a glut of cheap sugar while the British colonies had no excess sugar as it was mostly being used for run. Companies in north American that required molasses were going out of business as none was to be found. But the Brits wanted to crack that whip.

Supreme Justice : a new position created after the French and Indian War and given power over colonial justice systems. Located in New Foundland far from the population centers. The Justice made attempts to shut down public education in New England because, ""they were failing our children and private institutions could do it better." Decades after everyone was dead and gone, private correspondance would become public showing that the Justice and the King's Court believed just the opposite. The schools were working too good. The people were no longer willing to listen to their "betters".

The list goes on....