Britain gives in to demands of the American colonists

The colonists in the 13 American colonies that were to become the United States demanded "no taxation without representation". What if Britain had accepted those demands? Obviously, in retrospect it was a mistake not to accept it, as they lost the colonies. They would of course have become independent at some later point, like all British colonies. To me it seems likely that they would have joined Canada to become a united North American country. But what about slavery? Would it have taken longer time for Britain to outlaw slavery, as they would have feared losing the Southernmost colonies? Would a scenario where the Northernmost of the 13 states formed a country with the Canadian provinces, while the Southernmost colonies formed a separate state be likely? (of course if there were to become a Civil War in such a situation, the North would have been even stronger, as it also had Canada.)
 
It would have made the Corn laws harder to pass in Britain.

The Corn Laws were trade laws designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws

The Colonies would not be able to use tariffs to protect industry from competetion for English industry.

Without the large amount of money spent by the French supporting the American war of independence the French revoulation might not have happen or failed.

The way the British free slaves was to buy them and free adult slaves over a 7 years period with former slaves becoming "apprentices for that period.

Could be without tariffs and being paid for their slaves the civil war might not have happened.

in 1834 Cotton was not as important as in became later.
 
Interesting article here on some causes of the Revolution we don't hear much about. I didn't even know about the absentee-landlord situation.

The impression I get is that the government of colonial America had a lot of the same problems as government in Britain and Ireland, but in the case of America those problems were a lot more obvious because the people making the decisions were weeks away. It would take a very early political revolution in London to fix this.
 
One of the sad truth of history. The land of the free was born out of the will of keeping slaves. Even Goebbels is blushing.

You're probably a European who can't accept European imperialism died if you are making a Nazi comparison to the American Revolution to blacken it.

It's okay, we're embarrassed for you guys too.
 
One of the sad truth of history. The land of the free was born out of the will of keeping slaves. Even Goebbels is blushing.

I don't think this is accurate at all. Many of the northern states abolished slavery after the Revolution, no?
 
Britain did give in on most demands and it was far more complex than that.

The southern colonies were petrified that they were going to lose their slaves because of these lawsuits:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v._Knowles,_ex_parte_Somersett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_v._Wedderburn#Knight_-v-_Wedderburn

Which triggered freedom suits in the colonies.

TBH, even if Somerset did *temporarily* concern some people(which wouldn't make much sense, given that Britain had no real short-term plans for ending slavery anywhere in the colonies), slavery actually had very little to do with the Revolution(either way). In fact, if anything at all, one early draft of the DoI actually seems to have *condemned* the slave trade. So obviously, the sentiment was there.

One of the sad truth of history. The land of the free was born out of the will of keeping slaves. Even Goebbels is blushing.

Not really, Alex.

I don't think this is accurate at all. Many of the northern states abolished slavery after the Revolution, no?

Yes, they did, and had the British won, it's not at all certain that it would necessarily have happened as quickly as it did IOTL. And, it's all too interesting to note that abolitionism really only took off in the British Empire in the years after the Revolution. Had it not been for that, there's a good chance that it might have taken quite a bit longer to end slavery in the colonies.
 
In the long run, the United States will declare its independence. A true trans-Atlantic political union just isn't very feasible, especially when the population of the American colonies catches up to and then surpasses that of Britain.

As for this:

Would a scenario where the Northernmost of the 13 states formed a country with the Canadian provinces, while the Southernmost colonies formed a separate state be likely? (of course if there were to become a Civil War in such a situation, the North would have been even stronger, as it also had Canada.)

Keep in mind that what is now Canada was predominantly French-speaking in 1776. English speakers were mainly restricted to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. So they aren't likely to find common ground with the Americans. In OTL, American independence changed the course of Canadian history as 100,000 Loyalists left the 13 colonies to settle Quebec, leading to the founding of the separate English-speaking colony of Upper Canada (Ontario). Without the war, anglophone settlement of Canada is going to proceed much more slowly and French Canadians (who had a very high birth rate) might move west into OTL Ontario.
 
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The colonists demands were a little more than getting representation. The revolution came about as the colonists began to recognise themselves more as Americans than as British. The Navigation acts which made free trade possible for all British ships was intended to cover the colonists, as they were supposed to be British, yet it didn't plan out like that and thus a separate identity develops. The fact that stuff isn't allowed to manufactured in the colonies and has to be shipped to Britain further exacerbates the separation of identities.

When a similar situation was made some years earlier, Britain did repeal the Stamp Act but that did nothing to quell the aspirations of the colonists.

So say they do give into their demands, there's a few more years until something else comes up and the situation repeats itself. The 1770s is too late to reverse the creation of the American identity.
 
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