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Trace the Development of the Anglo-American Conflict. Could the Relationship Have Been Saved?

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Trace the Development of the Anglo-American Conflict. Could the Relationship Have Been Saved?
Trace the development of the Anglo-American conflict. Could the relationship have been saved?

Although American colonists always tried to negotiate the contentious policies which contradicted their principles with the British Parliament, the crown did not leave much room for the discussion fueling the Anglo-American debate with a stubborn constitutional position; with a ridiculous notion as virtual representation; with a large British army that limited the economic development of the country; with the unjust acts that forced to shell out revenues from the colonies;

One of the reasons that lead to the conflict was the lack of proper communication between England and America. Even though packet boats sailed regularly back and forth between London and the various colonial ports of America, the voyage across the Atlantic took too much time. It took a while for the Americans to receive answers to their long-awaited questions. The gap between the British and the Americans widened further when the Englishmen, only few of whom had actually visited America, passed on laws based on rumors and misunderstandings.

The Americans, who devotedly preserved the so-called Commonwealthman tradition that was developed by the English publicists Trenchard and Gordon, viewed a bad policy as a sign of sin and fraud. The followers of this tradition believed that the one should not be given power if lacking virtue for power without virtue can lead to the destruction of liberty. To a certain extent, Americans pleaded for a separate legislature because they regarded Parliament's passage of the wrong policies as a sign of corruption that might have had spread in their highly morally charged religious community.

Despite that the idea of sharing and dividing power with the Americans that could save the British Empire from losing its most valuable colonies, the English Parliament had a hard line on the issue of the parliamentary sovereignty. The English elite viewed the Parliament as

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