British Victory in ARW: Re-drawing the colonial boundaries

Good Morning, all

I was wondering about this the other day and I was hoping for comments from those of you who are more knowledgeable in this area than I am.

In a scenario where:

1) the British successfully put down the rebellion (I'm envisioning a successful Saratoga campaign), and
2) offer something close in spirit to Home Rule.
3) firmly place the cost of mainitaining the Army on the Americans.

Is there any chance that the crown would/could revoke various the colonial charters and create something like a series of Dominions of New England (I'm thinking, the Carribean, Quebec, New England, the Carolinas, Virginia and the Middle colonies) as the price for more independence.

Would the Americans accept this or are the colonial boundaries too firmly set in people's minds?

I can see this working in the favour of the Crown in a very Machiavellian way. It would focus internal dissent and inter-colonial rivalries on the dominion governments while dividing the colonies as a while.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

David
 
I don't think revoking charters would be a very good idea - that seems the surest route to ARW Round II.

Also, combining into larger units seems like a really bad idea. How would this help? It would just create really powerful dominions that would have a much greater chance of succeeding if they chose to revolt again.

I'm not sure how the British can solve their problems - there are too many incompatible things going on. How do you maintain control over Westward-expanding settlers? How do you provide the level of representation to make paying for military defense palatable?

Would this entail letting Americans into Parliament? That sounds like an absolute impossibility.

The only thing I can think of is setting up a North American Viceroyalty with a federal parliament with limited reponsibilities, like defense. But these tend to expand in scope...
 
An all out revocation of the charter is likely to continue provoking rebellion. By 1776 (if not half a century earlier), the boundaries of the 13 colonies are firmly set (with a few exception, notably Vermont and NY as well as Maine and New Brunswick/Nova Scotia). If the colonists get pissed off enough, then the colonies will simmer as a perpetual sore on the British Empire and the war probably wouldn't effectively end. Of itself, this may not be a reason for a very hardline Brit to make the suggestion. However, I'd imagine an end to the war is likely to involve the substantial number of British MPs who sympathized in some way with the American demands.

One could accomplish very much the same thing if the British impose a number of regional confederations rather than maintain one big continental union. This might likely flow from the course of the war, since a successful Saratoga campagin might begin dividing the colonies. Without Cornwallis' campaign in the South, the Carolinas in particular may revert to their Loyalism. Regional confederations avoid the problem of essentially granting the Americans "Home Rule" since it will perpetually involve the British crown (or at least crown officers) in resolving disputes between the confederations.

The degree of independence created by the reforms is likely to hinge on the final disposition of command authority and the question of Westminster representation. I've never thought American MPs of some kind out of the question: for two decades prior to 1776, the colonies had been in the pracitce of sending agents to London to deal with Parliament on issues concerning them (e.g. Ben Franklin for PA). Also, granting representation to the colonials makes for a convient pivot point for Reformers to push for greater reform to rotten borroughs. One compromise may be to differentiate between an Imperial and UK Parliament: when Parliament makes any law concerning the colonies, the Parliament is understood to be sitting "Imperial" and the American MPs have a vote. If not, they have none. I'd also expect the turning point to come during a potential campaign: i.e. when Parliament thinks the Carolinas might be amenable, they propose to grant them this kind of provisional status in order to break the Continental Union.
 
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