Was America ready for a revolution?

Answer 1

In most ways, America in 1775 - 1776 was not ready for a revolution. Only a few places in the colonies could be said to be adequately prepared. The people of New Hampshire were quite well prepared, and the British hardly touched the state during the war. The people of Virginia were generally well prepared, and the British military never really was able to take the state. Most other places, especially coastal cities and towns, were horribly unprepared. They had not organized militias, leadership, food, weapons, powder, financial resources, etc., for a long fight.

Most of the country was badly divided between loyalists and revolutionaries, for example, New York City was strongly loyalist. Most of New Jersey was loyalist. A military historian might speculate on whether the revolutionaries might have better waited for ten or fifteen years and had an easier time of things.

The area in which they were the least prepared was with a Navy, and that was the trump card that the United Kingdom had in abundance. Colonial shipbuilders had never laid down the keel for a man of war or for that matter of a major cargo vessel. A small number of cargo vessels were hurriedly converted to the role of armed merchantmen but they were all outclassed by the Royal Navy.

Answer 2

At the time of the American Revolutionary War, there were a substantial number of Americans who did not want the revolution, but no referendum was held to determine what course of action was most popular. Those who wished to rebel, did. Those who did not wish to rebel, in many cases fled to Canada (and were known as the United Empire Loyalists).