Why England Fought

Burke and others warned that the British war with the American colonies was unwinnable. “The Ocean remains” was Burke’s argument, and “you cannot pump it dry.”

Why fight? In a “Memorandum” written in 1778 and published in 1932, Adam Smith explained that it was a question of p.r., or, in more classical, Thucydidean terms, an honor war. Voluntary withdrawal is the most rational option, but “Tho this termination of the war might be really advantageous, it would not, in the eyes of Europe, appear honourable to Great Britain; and when her empire is so much curtailed, her power and dignity would be supposed to be proportionably diminished. What is of still greater importance, it could scarce fail to discredit the government in the eyes of our own people, who would probably impute to maladministration what might, perhaps, be no more than the unavoidable effect of the natural and necessary course of things.”