[Sidenote: Weakness and Disunion of the Thirteen Colonies]
But even had there been every motive for armed resistance to Great
Britain, the American colonies could hardly have attempted it until
after the conclusion of the French and Indian War. Until the second
half of the eighteenth century the British colonies were both weak and
divided. They had no navy and very few fortifications to defend their
coastline. They had no army except raw and unreliable militia. Even in
1750 their inhabitants numbered but a paltry 1,300,000 as compared with
a population in Great Britain of more than 10,000,000; and in wealth
and resources they could not dream of rivaling the mother country.
The lack of union among the colonies sprang from fundamental
industrial, social, and religious differences. The southern provinces--
Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia--were agricultural, and their
products were plantation-grown rice, indigo, and tobacco. New York and
Pennsylvania produced corn and timber. In New England, although there
were many small farmers, the growing interest was in trade and
manufacture.
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