Why did the British go to war with Americans in 1776?

Answer 1

Prior to the French and Indian war there were several colonial wars between Brittan and France in North America. None settled the major issues for long. The colonies bordered each other and the British colonies had a faster growing population of mostly farmers while the French were mostly trading with the Indians for furs. The British had claims on Western PA and the Ohio valley. British colonists were trading in this area with Indian tribes. The French also claimed the area and feared that British settlers would be next. Indian tribes sided with both the British and French but more sided with the French (as the French colony of Canada subsisted mostly on the fur trade while the British colonies did more farming and were growing much faster putting pressure on the Indians for land). The French were also more adept at keeping the Indians satisfied with gifts. The French monarchy was absolute and had a more dictatorial control over Canada and relations with the Indians. Each British colony had its own Indian affairs representative. certainly not unified or completely controlled by the crown. Brittish settlers (often a small farm all alone on the frontier)also made easier targets for Indian raids and thus more plunder. Indians were not much for fighting against hardened targets. In the end the French were able to get more Indian support until the end when they saw the writing on the wall and turned on the French.

Answer 2

Although they disliked and mistrusted each other for centuries (and some would argue, to the present day) they did not go to war with each other directly that often. The first time it lasted a hundred years, though: that was the 14th century Hundred Year's War. The reason: protection by the English of their posessions (Normandy and the Bordeaux region) against French inroads, and the English king's claims on the French throne.

The second time was in the 17th century when king William III of England who considered himself champion of the Protestant cause in Europe fought the armies of Louis XIV on a number of occasions as a reaction to catholic France's expansionist policies.

Finally, England went to war against France in the late 18th/early 19th century when Napoleon ruled France and most of Western Europe. This was a result of Great Britain's participation in the so-called First and Second Coalition against revolutionary France, aimed at its growing power in Europe and in order to break Napoleon's Continental System of boycotting any trade between Europe and Britain.

Apart from these three occasions the British and the French clashed over time on the posession of colonies, and the were always happy to support each others adversaries: the French supporting the Scots, the Irish and the American colonies when they revolted; the English supporting any continental country that France at any point had its eye on.

Answer 3

Well the british are !@##$%^@#$%@#$%^