King George III's 1776 Speech That Doomed the British Empire

Two hundred and fifty years ago, King George III of England made – on October 31, 1776 – a fundamental mistake. On that day, almost four months after the Declaration of Independence, he threw away the last chance for peace and began calling Americans names. It served him poorly.

On the last day of October 1776, King George gave his first speech to Parliament on the American uprising, soon the American Revolution – which would change the history of all Mankind, reducing the United Kingdom, over time, to a buffeted former empire, and elevating America to superpower.

On that day, he threw down. He did not have to; he could have sought reconciliation, and while that approach might have taken time and money, it would have required far less time and money than the war that would soon consume him, become unstoppable, and lead to defeat for the British military.

In the speech, the King called our Declaration of Independence, courage in the face of oppression – or “Rebellion to Tyranny is Obedience to God,” as patriots said at the time – a foolish outrage. He despised our forefathers… “for daring and desperate is the spirit of those leaders, whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the crown, and all political connection with this country.”

Rather than rethink the endgame, imagine a different way of resolving the conflict, which for us ended more than favorably; he was consumed by pride and, as pride often does, it blinded him. He disparaged George Washington, saying, “it was necessary to prepare for another campaign.”

Ironically, the Howe brothers – General William and Admiral Richard – were the King’s military leaders in America; they could not or did not contain Washington in New York. When word of the King’s speech reached the colonies, it enraged those on the fence.

Perhaps the historical lesson is that, at any given time in history, we are both a product of the past and often unaware of how an alternate set of options, a different path, might decisively affect the future.

Would Great Britain have been able to continue dominating indefinitely? Not likely. Would the Revolution have been stoppable? Maybe for a time. Would we have ended up free and prosperous, built out – over time – on the same principles we call constitutional now?

No one knows. What we do know is that America was forged in the crucible of necessity, that oppression is ultimately unsustainable. Oppression is clear when it happens, at any level, in any nation, for any period. It is at odds with God-given rights in our Bill of Rights.

So, what is interesting – this, 250 years after a Kingly fit of pride – is that history was about to sweep him aside, and that the power of freedom, the engine that made us America, roared to life after that speech, changing history … And that engine is still changing history.