Prior to it actually happening, could anyone have actually reasonably foreseen the colonies rebelling & successfully gaining independence? It's easy to 'Monday quarterback' & say, 'he coulda-shoulda'... but I wouldn't be so tough on him, b/c no one could've seen it coming at the time.
And WITH hindsight being 20/20, IMO the American colonies were never going to be sustainable anyway (remaining as colonies) with such large numbers of migrants coming from foreign (non-British) countries. Plus independence was just a natural progression from the reason many of the colonists were there in the first place; fleeing religious persecution & oppressive government. And this migration trend had been in place long before the coronation of George III. From the moment he rose to the throne, he was inevitably going to have to loosen the reigns on the American colonies one way or another... at least granting semi-autonomy. A similar path to independence as Canada, perhaps... but more accelerated.
But overall opinion? For me, G3 is just another example of how monarchy is a double-edged sword.
And WITH hindsight being 20/20, IMO the American colonies were never going to be sustainable anyway (remaining as colonies) with such large numbers of migrants coming from foreign (non-British) countries. Plus independence was just a natural progression from the reason many of the colonists were there in the first place; fleeing religious persecution & oppressive government. And this migration trend had been in place long before the coronation of George III. From the moment he rose to the throne, he was inevitably going to have to loosen the reigns on the American colonies one way or another... at least granting semi-autonomy. A similar path to independence as Canada, perhaps... but more accelerated.
But overall opinion? For me, G3 is just another example of how monarchy is a double-edged sword.
