Latest Possible Point for Britain to retake former colonies

What do you think is the latest possible point where the entire US could be reabsorbed into the British Empire? I personally think the absolute latest point is the War of 1812, and the only way for this to happen is for the British to sacrifice balance of power in Europe for dominance of North America. Of course hindsight is 20/20 and achieving the latter would have been better for Britain in the long run, but few people could have seen that in 1812.

So when do you think is the latest possible point for the entire US to be reabsorbed into the British Empire?
 

Thande

Donor
Well, it depends what you mean. If you mean go straight back in and try and run them exactly as before...never, really. Even if we won big in the ARW early on it would just turn into Northern Ireland writ large. However, if you add latitude like basically installing a sort of 'dominion' level government in each colony, I would say it is plausible at least as late as the War of 1812--albeit everything in the war would have to go our way. You can talk about the American national character already being established by then, but if you have the British governors offer to cut taxes back to pre-ARW levels* and let them retain elected representation, I think that would cut resistance to just a minority of diehards.

*Somewhat ironically seeing as the whole war started over taxation without representation, taxes in the post-ARW USA were 20 times higher than they had been in the pre-ARW colonies and have kept rising ever since.
 
Howe supports Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 resulting in a decisive British victory. This allows Britain to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Parliament would need to more local autonomy and provide a mechanism for redress of grievances. The southern and mid-Atlantic states could be won over. New England would continue to be a problem.
 
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