Time to weigh in. Complementary to the jr@jrshelby.com comments on the British viewpoint: The colonies were just that--colonies. They were not territories. There is an important difference which was not lost on the Americans following Independence. A colony is the ward of the parent, not the child. That is, the British said the colonies could only trade with British merchants. After Independence, as America expanded across the continent, Congress was careful to make it clear it was setting up Territories (Ohio Territory, for example) which could grow up to become States. The Treaty with Mexico (Guadalupe Hidalgo) makes that point specifically. The colonies along the Eastern seaboard chafed and suffered under the import/export restrictions. It is a point made clear in the popular new biography of John Adams. Though it would be years before America became a great exporting nation, that one policy alone (domination over the business of the Colonies) would have eventually brought reaction from the colonists whose lands were so fruitful.