The Royal Navy in America, 1760-1775 - A Study of Enforcement of British Colonial Policy in the Era of the American Revolution

The Royal Navy is inextricably bound up with the American Revolution, for the navy was the most effective agency enforcing British colonial policy from 1760 to 1775 - years in which the American colonists were forced to reassess their place in the British Empire. The Royal Navy was responsible for the success of the Sugar Act, the only act that successfully taxed America. The British Government's poor planning and reluctance to provide for the navy's manpower and ship requirements help to explain the failure of the Stamp Act, the Townshend Actsssss and the Coercive Acts. The commission investigating the destruction of HMS Gaspee was the occasion for the creation of the inter-colonial committees of correspondence, which ultimately led to America's first independent government, the Continental Congress. It was not so much British policy itself as the fact that the Royal Navy tried diligently to enforce it that caused the American Revolution. Other historians had recognized that the Royal Navy played a role in the American Revolution, but Professor Stout is the first to explore the full implications of that role...