British Colonies In Thomas Paine's Common Sense

During the 1760s and 1770s, many British colonists were very conflicted over whether or not they should break from England and become their own independent nation. Many people believed that attempting to create their own nation would be disastrous financially, militarily, and politically and that it was not the best time for America to become independent. However, Thomas Paine addresses these concerns and soundly refutes them in his book Common Sense by providing factual evidence that illustrates just how prosperous the colonies were and explaining how they could grow even more so without the burden of British rule.
America was founded and settled by Great Britain mainly for the purpose of providing Great Britain a new way to gain revenue …show more content…
Due to Britain’s naval dominance, an American victory in a war against her seemed implausible. Paine, however contradicts this sentiment with, “The English list of ships is long and formidable, but not a tenth part of them are at any one time fit for service…The East, and West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon her navy(105).” This explains that while on paper Britain looks very powerful, in practice she’s not as strong as she’s believed to be, which gives the Americans more of a chance than they believed they had. Another concern was America’s lack of any military establishment. Paine also addressed this with, “No country on the globe is so happily situated, so internally capable of raising a fleet as America(103).” America’s abundant natural resources gives America an advantage over the Europeans because they don’t need to import any materials across the ocean in order to build a fleet. Paine also points out how that time was also the most ideal to build a fleet because of how close certain materials were to the coast which would make the process easier and more profitable. The fleet then could also be used in combat against Britain or sold to other countries in order to gain a source of revenue to fund the coming …show more content…
Paine confronts these concerns with, “…there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connection than from independence…No man can assign the least pretense for his fears, on any other grounds, that such are truly childish and ridiculous, that one colony will be striving for superiority over another(95).” This explains that worse issues than a civil war could occur if the colonies stayed with Britain because of all the injustices Britain had enacted. More problems would arise than would be solved because of the way Britain viewed the colonies, as just an extension of its empire and not worthy of being properly represented and having its legitimate issues addressed in a suitable manner. Paine also explains that fearing a civil war is ridiculous because that insinuates that the colonies each had an agenda of attaining complete supremacy, when in reality they were really striving for equal cooperation between themselves. When figuring out what type of government the new nation would have, it’s obvious that they already had a basis for one with the current government of the colonies. The only adjustments they would have to make would be to create a centralized government that would