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Between 1689 and 1763, Britain and France were at war with one another more than half of the time. The world’s two most powerful nations struggled for world dominance. Britain would benefit from securing her borders, expanding markets, and increasing the size and power of her empire. The imperial wars exposed a widening division between the political economy of the colonies and the mother country. The costs were staggering and required an increasingly centralized state and a bigger bureaucracy as well as a more aggressive and focused leadership. Britain increased her power over the colonies, raised their taxes, and stationed a permanent army in North America to protect her possessions. Britain’s attempt to strengthen control resulted in colonial resistance and rebellion but her victory over the French came at an enormous price where her colonies were concerned. The French and Indian War reinforced Britain’s need to act more forcefully in dealing with the colonies and exercise more control over them. She set out with a new resolve to enforce a set of assumptions about how an empire should function and what the role of colonies should be. Three forces came together in this conflict. (1) King George III, who seemed unable to find a minister to his liking and therefore changed them frequently, believed that he should be the one to bring the colonies back under control. (2)Parliament was unwilling to abdicate power to the king and showed its willingness to exert its legislative powers over the colonies. (3) The colonists interpreted all of these actions and formulated their responses within the context of years of strife. The colonists rested their resistance on the British constitution and their rights as Englishmen. Economics and politics had become inseparable. The colonists equated representative government and prosperity. Britain believed that the colonies were a small part of a larger whole held together by a centralized and powerful government. The overarching question was: just how did the British constitution apply to the colonists; what were their rights within the empire? Colonial resistance to Parliament’s actions was swift and forceful and when the colonists reacted George III and Parliament responded in an even more forceful manner. A pattern of behavior was established. Each attempt by Parliament to enforce the Empire was met with an organized colonial opposition. Britain responded with punitive measures, the colonists mobilized larger and larger segments of the society including women, and the two sides moved further and further apart. Soon reconciliation was no longer a desirable option.
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