ABSTRACT
The American states became independent in 1776 or 1783, depending on whether one adopts the American or the British perspective. They did so in substantial part due to international factors. First, the push by the colonies’ residents for independence was spurred by tax disputes stemming from the funding of wars to secure and expand the British colonial position in North America, the most proximate being the Seven Years’ War (1756-63). Though keen on the idea of expanding their holdings on the continent at the expense of the French and their Indian allies, and willing to contribute directly to the fighting itself, the colonists bridled at ‘taxation without representation’ and the wider issue of British control over American destiny symbolized by it. There was thus a causal line of sorts between the Franco-British wars in North America and Britain’s split with its colonies.2
