Britain and the colonies misjudged each other's strategic value

Misperception on both sides shaped the revolutionary crisis. The profits at issue accrued mainly to a small group of owners. British leaders still overrated the thirteen colonies' economic contribution and supply of sailors, while many colonists assumed that being the earliest settlements made them more valuable than Caribbean and other imperial possessions. Continued direction by Lord George Germain is identified as one of several British mistakes. Once a wider war forced Britain to choose what it could defend, the mainland colonies became losses it could absorb. That reprioritization helps explain why a dispute inside one imperial system could end with Britain accepting separation.