WI: British Keep Philippines in 1763

[Phoenix]

What if the British keep the Philippines, and do not trade them for Minorca at the Treaty of Paris?

Or Britain is more successful in the Seven Years War against Spain and keeps both territories?

What would be the effects on the American Revolution? Would the increased revenue from the new colony offset most of the financial costs of the war, and less taxes are imposed on the Americans? Would the British Army be overstretched, and the Americans have a much easier chances, or would the British Army be increased in size, with little to no change in the British Army in America?

 

[kasumigenx]

What if the British keep the Philippines, and do not trade them for Minorca at the Treaty of Paris?

Or Britain is more successful in the Seven Years War against Spain and keeps both territories?

What would be the effects on the American Revolution? Would the increased revenue from the new colony offset most of the financial costs of the war, and less taxes are imposed on the Americans? Would the British Army be overstretched, and the Americans have a much easier chances, or would the British Army be increased in size, with little to no change in the British Army in America?

There would be two things that will happen if it does.
-What used to be philippines will be a part of malaysia instead and islamization will start again.
-I think the most likely result is the four kingdoms that comprised the philippines before the colonization rise again but as british puppets.

 

[Neil Craig]

The Philipinnes wasn't very important to colonial struggles - it is just another Borneo but without oil & further from Europe, so I doubt if it would have cahanged history much up till Dec 1941. The Philipines straddles Japan's rout south & as long as it was an American ally Japan could not go to war against Britain without taking on the US as well.

 

[Flocculencio]

Why would they want the Philippines though? They were poor and undeveloped compared to Malaya and the Indonesian islands. True, in the 1760s Britain didn't have much of a presence in the East Indies but that makes the Philippines even less desirable. As long as the Dutch hold Malacca they can cut Britain of from the Philippines. If the British take Malacca they then have secure access to much richer areas than the Philippines which most likely means the Philippines will wither on the vine while Britain concentrates on developing Malacca which is a ready-made cash cow. Sooner or later someone is going to hit on the idea of developing a port at Singapore which has the potential to be an even bigger cash cow than Malacca. Basically once you hold the Straits of Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Malacca itself give you access to the riches of the Indies without actually having to go out and hold down the islands yourself.

If Britain takes Malacca as in OTL and lays claim to Singapore I could see them signing a treaty with the Dutch demarcating spheres of influence in the East Indies. IOTLs 1826 treaty Britain exchanged claims on Sumatra and everything South and East of Singapore for control of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore itself. Perhaps in TTL the Philippines gets included in that, expanding the Dutch East Indies.

 

[stevep]

What if the British keep the Philippines, and do not trade them for Minorca at the Treaty of Paris?

Or Britain is more successful in the Seven Years War against Spain and keeps both territories?

What would be the effects on the American Revolution? Would the increased revenue from the new colony offset most of the financial costs of the war, and less taxes are imposed on the Americans? Would the British Army be overstretched, and the Americans have a much easier chances, or would the British Army be increased in size, with little to no change in the British Army in America?

Phoenix

As people have said not sure how wealthy the islands are at the time and whether there was any great value in holding them. I know the Spanish had a regular Manila galleon shipment between the Philippines and Mexico but not sure how much of what items it carried. - A quick check suggested that they were goods from China and the spice islands, i.e. the Philippines served as a transit point but didn't contribute greatly to the products themselves.

Even if the islands were profitable they wouldn't make any difference to the US rebellion. The taxes Britain tried to charge were to contribute to the costs of the garrisons maintained in the colonies. That was bound to happen sooner of later and at that point some of the colonists, used to paying no taxes to Britain will object.

Not to mention I very much doubt that the islands at the time had anything like the wealth or population of the US colonies so even if for some reason it was decided the Philippines should pay for the defence of the American colonies, as well as presumably for their own garrison it would be somewhat unrealistic.

Steve