What do you say to the argument that the American Revolution was a question of economics, the expansion into Ohio, possibility of inflation caused by taxes, and debt, rather than it being about principal and ideology?

By: vivian on domingo, fevereiro 08, 2015

Its probably right. And the economic fear for the future was important — if the British Parliament could impose any tax it wants, at any time, as it asserted that it could after the Stamp Tax, the Americans were afraid for the economic freedom (and ability to nix new taxes at their town council or state legislature). The principle of the thing mattered, sure. Without an ideology to back up their reasoning, no foreign state would support the revolution. Without ideology, the revolutionaries would have had a much harder time recruiting. But the main driver was definitely the fact that long-term it was in the colonists’ interests to be in charge of their own taxes.

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