EURAMERICA Vol. 52, No. 2 (June 2022), 295-372 DOI: 10.7015/JEAS.202206_52(2).0004 http://euramerica.org Disputes on Sovereignty During the American Revolution TP PTP P Harry T. Dickinson School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh E-mail: Harry.Dickinson@ed.ac.uk Abstract Britain’s commercial and taxation policies in the early 1760s provoked resentment in the country’s American colonies, but the deeper issue in debate was based on disputes about the nature and location of sovereignty in the British empire. The Westminster parliament claimed absolute sovereignty over the American colonies, but the Americans insisted that the sovereign authority over their internal affairs lay in each colony’s provincial legislature. To resolve this increasingly bitter dispute, both sides put forward suggestions that attempted to reconcile the differences between them. These suggestions failed because neither side was prepared to sacrifice its vital interests. When the American colonies achieved their independence from the British parliament these new states had to decide the question of the nature and location of sovereignty for themselves. Their first solution, the Articles of Confederation, proved unsatisfactory. The © Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica Received October 6, 2020; accepted June 24, 2021; last revised February 17, 2021 Proofreaders: Yi-Han Huang, Yu-Hsien Liao, Chia-Chi Tseng
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