Many of the things which tended to unite them likewise tended to throw them into opposition to the British Crown and Parliament.  Most of them were freeholders; that is, farmers who owned their own land and tilled it with their own hands.  A free soil nourished the spirit of freedom.  The majority of them were Dissenters, critics, not friends, of the Church of England, that stanch defender of the British monarchy.  Each colony in time developed its own legislature elected by the voters; it grew accustomed to making laws and laying taxes for itself.  Here was a people learning self-reliance and self-government.  The attempts to strengthen the Church of England in America and the transformation of colonies into royal provinces only fanned the spirit of independence which they were designed to quench.

Nevertheless, the Americans owed much of their prosperity to the assistance of the government that irritated them.  It was the protection of the British navy that prevented Holland, Spain, and France from wiping out their settlements.  Though their manufacture and trade were controlled in the interests of the mother country, they also enjoyed great advantages in her markets.  Free trade existed nowhere upon the earth; but the broad empire of Britain was open to American ships and merchandise.  It could be said, with good reason, that the disadvantages which the colonists suffered through British regulation of their industry and trade were more than offset by the privileges they enjoyed.  Still that is somewhat beside the point, for mere economic advantage is not necessarily the determining factor in the fate of peoples.  A thousand circumstances had helped to develop on this continent a nation, to inspire it with a passion for independence, and to prepare it for a destiny greater than that of a prosperous dominion of the British empire.  The economists, who tried to prove by logic unassailable that America would be richer under the British flag, could not change the spirit of Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, or George Washington.

=References=

G.L.  Beer, Origin of the British Colonial System and The Old Colonial
System.

A. Bradley, The Fight for Canada in North America.

C.M.  Andrews, Colonial Self-Government (American Nation Series).

H. Egerton, Short History of British Colonial Policy.

F. Parkman, France and England in North America (12 vols.).

R. Thwaites, France in America (American Nation Series).

J. Winsor, The Mississippi Valley and Cartier to Frontenac.

=Questions=

1.  How would you define “nationalism”?

2.  Can you give any illustrations of the way that war promotes nationalism?

3.  Why was it impossible to establish and maintain a uniform policy in dealing with the Indians?

4.  What was the outcome of the final clash with the French?