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New England had wanted to be Independent from England since at least the late 1600s, but the fear of the French in Canada meant they had to accept British Rule. Once the French were gone in 1763, that opened up the Great Lakes for expansion from New England.
In the Middle Colones, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and to a large degree Maryland and Virginia, the issue was more expansion into the Mississippi River Valley (including the Ohio). In the South the movement was also westward into the Mississippi, but less dependent on the Ohio.
Notice all three areas wanted to go west, but the British who had just taken the Mississippi River Valley and Great Lakes from the French wanted it for its furs NOT as Farm land. The British wanted to keep the existing fur business, which was very profitable, in their hands. Furthermore they wanted the American Colonies to pay for the Troops to keep them out of the Mississippi and Great Lakes systems.
This was made clear in the Intolerable acts of 1774, which included a provision that limited ALL of the Colonies to the Eastern Continental divide (And Americans had been living pass that divide for at least 40 years by that time). George Washington had purchased huge areas West of the Eastern Continental Divide, and it was this provision more then anything else that made him support Independence (I am of the opinion that if the Quebec Act, which was the Act among the Intolerable Acts, that stripped all of the Colonies of their claim to lands beyond the Eastern Continental Divide, had NOT been added to the rest of the Intolerable acts, Washington, and much of the South, would have sided with the British).
It was clear that Britain had different plans for the Mississippi Valley then did the Colonies, and once that was clear in the form of the Quebec Act, even the American South switched to Independence (Through it is the opinion of most Historians that the support for Independence in the South (excluding the Frontier) was just over 1/2 the population, the rest of the population supported the British.
Please note, the Frontier was overwhelming anti-British. The Frontier was mostly "Protestant" Scot-Irish, who had left Ireland do to the fact the laws against Catholics also applied to them for they were Presbyterians. The English Considered the only proper Protestant Church was the Church of England, or as it was called in Ireland, the Church of Ireland, and that Presbyterians were as bad as Catholics. Please Note, Washington had a habit of calling such people "White Indians" for their manners and habits were very similar to the Native Americans. Yes not much love lost between the people on the Frontier and the rest of the South at that time period.
Anyway, the British had always relied on the fact that the South was the most loyal sections of the Americans, to make sure New England would not leave. All of the Colonies had developed an economy of low taxation, for their main source of revenue was selling lands purchased from the Native Americans. The Quebec Act also forbade this, thus every Colony was directly affected by the Quebec Act. This convinced enough people in the South they needed to be independent of England.
Thus it was the Greed of Parliament to get the profit of the fur trade for themselves, while the cost to protect the fur trade was to be borne by the Americans, that lead to American Independence. British promises of NO longer wanting to do that did NOT convince enough Americans to end the demand for Independence (Such offers were made, but by then it was to late). Greed and Stupidity outdoes most acts of the top 1%, but often can take centuries to kick in (as was what happened to Rome and its 1%, took almost 600 years before the problems caused by the Greed of the top 1% to lead to the end of the Roman Empire). In the case of American, France was still strong enough to use the fact that the 99% wanted out of the British Empire to get that done and thus weaken the top 1% of the British Empire. Such a weakening of the British top 1% was important to the French of the 1770s.
I am NOT for looking for Foreign allies, but that it is during time of a Crisis that the top 1% will give into the demands of the 99%. Thus we must be willing to continue this "Fight" (and when I use the term "Fight" I do NOT mean any act of violence, but the peaceful protests we are seeing) and force the situation for we are in crisis and even elements of the top 1% accept that unpleasant fact.
, and as in most cases, when the 1% finds themselves facing foreign enemies they need the 99% to defeat.
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