did England have enough ships to do that? if that did, that'd be cool.
Attacking colonies instead of invading foreign countries was the default strategy for Britain for much of its existence and it certainly served them well.
Colonies were not really that well protected. It’s defenses were usually aimed at holding down the natives and scaring off pirates. Any European battle fleet (with sufficient troops) should be able to wreak havoc. However, it would be a very expensive operation to mount and costly in manpower.
And without a continental ally to keep Spain or Portugal ‘busy’, those fleets would eventually show up to oppose the British fleet and retake the colony. That is why Britain would usually pay a continental ally to fight their ‘mutual’ enemy while Britain picked off colonies.
I don’t think picking off colonies would work without the support of such a continental ally.