Consider whether the collapse of British authority in the 13 rebellious colonies might have been avoided through compromise measures and more astute leadership. Was colonial independence inevitable and was the war the only way to achieve it?

British administration were worried about their American colonists, who according to former Georgia governor Henry Ellis, felt themselves, "entitled to a greater measure of decades. The British ministry could no longer let the colonies manage their own affairs. No one was willing to cooperate in the transformation, thus making the war inevitable.