BATTLE FOR AMERICA

Discover how the burning flame of liberty spread through the colonies to defeat an empire

- Written by Alan Taylor

In 1763, Britain completed eight years of victories over the French and Spanish empires. Thanks to a superior navy and more money, the British had overwhelmed the colonies of their adversaries by deploying more soldiers, sailors, warships and cannon.

In addition to conquering French Canada, British forces seized key French colonies in the Caribbean and the Spanish colonial capitals of Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines. The British also made gains in India and west Africa. Britain never had invested so many military resources across the oceans and around the globe with such stunning success. In the peace treaty of 1763, the British secured all of North America east of the Mississippi River.

Britain's North American colonists exulted in the great victories and the triumphant peace. They danced around bonfires, fired volleys of cannon, rang church bells, lit up the sky with fireworks, and toasted the Royal Navy, British army and colonial volunteers. They were proud to belong to a victorious and prosperous empire governed by a young and vibrant new king, George III. Far from seeking independence, colonists cherished the liberties, military security and profitable trade provided by a triumphant empire. The city of New York put up a statue of the king on horseback. In Massachusetts, a leading politician declared: "We love, esteem and reverence our mother country and adore our king."

But the British triumph had sown the seeds of a crisis that would rupture the empire a dozen years later. Victory had not come cheap - the conflict nearly doubled the British national debt from a prewar £74 million to a postwar £133 million. With British taxpayers already heavily burdened, Parliament sought out new sources of revenue in the colonies. After investing so much money and blood to fight in North America, Britain's rulers expected the colonists to bear more of the costs of empire.