American History

There is much to question with respect to the assertion that irreconcilable differences between Great Britain and the American colonialists made conflict inevitable.  Indeed, a review of the common interests suggests quite the contrary.  There were common social bonds, both were dependent on the same types of trade, and the forms of political organization were similar if not identical.  What evolved and ultimately led to the split was more of a contest between elites from Great Britain and increasingly wealthy colonial elites rather than some sort of grassroots type of colonial discontent based in irreconcilable differences.  Edmund Burke, from the British perspective, went to great lengths to point out common interests and to argue in favor of reconciliation rather than the split that he saw coming.  He anticipated that the differences were being caused by American colonials eager to secure more influence and larger shares of the trading profits rather than structural or philosophical incompatibilities, stating that the majority of the American colonialists were being deceived and manipulated by mechanical politicians.  In order to appease the aspirations of these colonial politicians he proposed granting the colonies a degree of political autonomy while simultaneously demanding that they remain under the larger political authority of Great Britain.  Burke therefore did not see irreconcilable differences and thought that a political compromise could be achieved in such a way as to avoid a split.  American elites and leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson on the other hand, viewed this as an opportunity to become independent and establish their own authority and power.  True, the American elites were motivated to an extant by notions of creating a nation based on certain philosophical premises.  In drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, for example, the American colonial elites listed a number of abuses by King George and Great Britain in an attempt to legitimize an impending split.  These were abuses, however, that could have been negotiated and eliminated.  Burke has anticipated many of these complaints in his Speech on Conciliation with America and proposed some form of autonomy as a political compromise.  For the working poor, in contrast to the elites, it probably made very little difference whether they were governed by British elites or American colonial elites they would be poor in either event and these people constituted the majority rather than the minority.   It is fair to argue that the split was not inevitable, that the differences could have been resolved, but that a power struggle between British elites and aspiring colonial elites led to the split rather than irreconcilable differences.