Why in the American revolution did the patriots not declare independence (7/2/1776) until over a year after the fighting started (4/19/1775)?
by 
wmorgan83
ANSWERS: 3
-
They didn't assamble the US Congress and adopted it until that date. It's not easy to run a society at wartime.
-
For quite a while quite a large number of the colonists did not particularly want independence. They would have been quite satisfied with local self determination plus representation in Parliament. What they objected to was British aristocrats who had never been in America before being dropped in to tell them how to run their lives. So a lot of the early fights were not fighting for independence itself, but objection to particular bits of heavy-handed interference by non-colonial administrators (such as that all shipping trade had to go via England, even from one colony to another). It was only after a certain amount of time that a group of people decided that London was never going to give them a level of local control which they would find acceptable, and therefore independence was the only solution. Even so, it was controversial: a number of people who had been active in the early protests backed off from this huge step for quite a while.
-
What might be surprising to many, it was me, but by a treaty made with the UK in 1783, the USA is still a colony of the UK! You can read all about it at the following sight: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/united_states_british_colony_index.htm
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC