During what stage of the ARW, in lieu of British victory, would Westminister be willing to give the Americans what they wanted(bar indepenance)? Or at least most of it.
During what stage of the ARW, in lieu of British victory, would Westminister be willing to give the Americans what they wanted(bar indepenance)? Or at least most of it.
Offer the conditions that they offered after Saratoga in early 1776. At that time, fighting had been going on for almost a year, but a majority of delegates in colonial legislatures and the Continental Congress were still opposed to declaring outright independence. Effective autonomy in domestic affairs at that point would have satisfied the majority.
Saratoga was fought in late 1777, not early 1776.
Improve the British position and they would likely offer less and improve the rebel situation and they will want more.
In general, this maxim makes sense, but if it holds true of the British, then they're never likely to offer terms the Americans will accept willingly.
It seems that you'd have to see somekind of change in leadership away from Lord North and the Tories in Parliament. With such a change, I think it's very likely that Britain starts offering terms.
If Cornwallis holds off on the Southern campaign or on freeing slaves in that campaign, then the British may be able to get the Carolinas on-board.
Once they do, then maybe the Loyalist strongholds like New York and Delaware might be induced to come over.
This probably entails turning the war into much more of a civil war in the colonies, with competing colonial/state legislatures.
In such a scenario, I think the British would concede quite a bit. In For Want of a Nail they effectively concede a Home Rule so large that it means effective Independence from the get-go (the CNA is more independent in 1790 than Canada was in 1914).
I've always thought that going whole-hog and offering some kind of colonial representation at Westminster would actually be quite cunning: the distance involved will likely hamper the effectiveness of colonial representation (and the ability of the colonies to block for example, any of the taxes that were imposed before the Revolution) while removing a huge point for dissent.
This might also be likely to the extent to which it doesn't require Parliament to concede direct authority for the colonial legislatures (this probably still leaves a problem, but not enough to mitigate the effect of the settlement).