RN Station at Newport Rhode Island

opposite effect. By 1764 rebellion was pretty visible. If the British decided to quarter those soldiers in peoples homes, it would have been disastorous. Also a well planned raid by the colonials at the beginning of the war might have even led to the capture of much needed supplies and maybe even a few good ships!
 
Okay so WI the British government had decided to construcy a large naval base at Newport, Rhode Island prior to the ARW. Would such a project have mitigated to a significan degree revolutionary sentiment in the colonies, or could it actually have had the opposite effect.

I would say it would provide a new vector for the multifaceted changes in the American colonies that became revolutionary sentiment. For example, say the British do build the base and in 1764, that base rather than Halifax becomes the head of customs administration for the colonies. Furthermore, if there's a real base, then presumably it has barracks and might mitigate the extent to which soliders were forcibly quartered in Massachusetts. Additionally, the other colonies might begin to resent that they didn't have a British navy base: the base might allow for something like rough manufacturing to grow up to support the harbor.

While the seeds of discontent in the colonies are fairly deeply sewn, those seeds attaining the radical, republican flavor that collalesced in the 1770s isn't certain.
 
Question, didn't the quartering issue arise out of the British occupation of Boston as a result of the Boston Tea Party?
 
Question, didn't the quartering issue arise out of the British occupation of Boston as a result of the Boston Tea Party?

Not sure, I just know of its exsistence and decided to throw it in there. If it doesn't apply then just throw my earlier idea ITL on the fire.
 
Question, didn't the quartering issue arise out of the British occupation of Boston as a result of the Boston Tea Party?

It arose out of the end of the French and Indian / Seven Years' War. The British hadn't been able to either get the American assemblies to appropriate money to house soldiers or get the Americans to house them. Hence, in the Quartering Act of 1765 the Governor of the respective provinces was allowed to quarter troops in unoccupied buildings (generally not private homes). The Act of 1765 led to a lot of dissent, but eventually led more legislatures to appropriate funds for barracks by 1771. A new Act was passed in 1774 (as part of the Intolerable or Coercive Acts) with slightly different (and if anything more tolerable) conditions.

Now, it might still be true that the first time the Act was really used to any great effect was the occupation of Boston, but the radica colonists had resented it long before then.
 
Okay so in the interest of keeping this thread from dying lets say that the placement of the Royal Navy Station doesn't effect the birth of the rebellion. Lets say that the British station a full battalion of troops as a garrison for the base. Instead of heading for Fort Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold heads for Newport. And with some 2,000 volunteers from Connecticut and Rhode Island he storms the base and captures the docks and ships intact and a treasure in customs revenues for the rebellion.
 
Okay so in the interest of keeping this thread from dying lets say that the placement of the Royal Navy Station doesn't effect the birth of the rebellion. Lets say that the British station a full battalion of troops as a garrison for the base. Instead of heading for Fort Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold heads for Newport. And with some 2,000 volunteers from Connecticut and Rhode Island he storms the base and captures the docks and ships intact and a treasure in customs revenues for the rebellion.

But ethan allen heads for ticonderoga anyways, and so that fort probably falls.

The rebellion gets a lot of revenue, several ships, and a decent sized arsenal/fleet base for it's troubles. The british have just lost one of their major bases in the new world. If newport supplants halifax as the north american fleet base, then the next few years just got tangled up. for one thing, the evacuation of boston now seems less feasible. Does howe decide to try to head for a base farther away then halifax (Jamaica, maybe), attempt a landing against a hostile city, or does he stay and fight (he was reluctant to in OTL, but different circumstances and a lack of fortuitous weather may change that)? If he fights, then the rebellion's fate will probably be decided in Boston shortly after washington mounts the cannon from ticonderoga and/or newport on Dorchester Heights.
 
I think Halifax is still a viable option since the RN had a base there since the late 1740's. And yes Ethan Allen retty much captured Ticonderoga on his own anyways.
 
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I think Halifax is still a viable option since the RN had a base there since the late 1740's. And yes Ethan Allen retty much captured Ticonderoga on his own anyways.

True, but if the RN wanted to, they could've just kept Louisbourg working as a base or a naval station as well.
 
True, but if the RN wanted to, they could've just kept Louisbourg working as a base or a naval station as well.

I think the point of the WI is to allow the colonials to seize an navy early the Revolution. Louisbourg is too far the colonials to easily seize the ships intact.

However, if the RN does decide to build ships in North America, then it means a lot has changed or may change. Building the ships in North America means that the British either have to official rescind or cease enforcing things like the Iron Act, which prevented manufactures from developing in the colonies. IIRC it was enforced in the 1750s or 1760s to close down an iron foundry in New York; if you're building ships in the colonies, it would far more convinient to have all the raw materials close at hand.

Accordingly, this would represent a big change in British imperial policy of just the sort that would appease enough Americans to avoid the Revolution as we know it. Doubly so, since it would probably divide the mercantile class (further).
 
I think the point of the WI is to allow the colonials to seize an navy early the Revolution. N'est-ce pas?

Now you know why earlier I suggested Jamestown or even Block Island. Jamestown is on an island - it's at the midway point between the mainland and Aquidneck Island (where Newport is located). Block Island, well, it's an island, but it's well away from "civilization".
 
But they dismantled Louisbourg and all the shipping infrastructure with it.

But, if the royal navy had a need for a new north american base during this time period, they could have used Louisbourg. However, they didn't for whatever reason (fear of unhappy locals, maybe?).
 
Okay so suppose that the RN decides to build the Alfred Class SOLs in North Americarather than in Britain?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_class_ship_of_the_line

I doubt SOLs will be built in Newport, tho access to wood and tar is good. A frigate size ship sure, but then there comes the problem of outfitting the warship in regards to armament. Is there a local armament provider? A naval station is entirely different than building dockyards. There are examples of the British building dockyards in India.
 
Okay well from what I read the proposed project was called a "navy yard" encompassing docks, shipyards, hospitals, etc. I don't see a problem with armament when such things could be easily made in Britain then transported across the Atlantic.
 
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