The move for independence wouldn't have happened had the French won in the Seven Years/French and Indian War. That opened up the west and got rid of a threat (the French and Indians). Of course, it opened up a bunch of other problems.
The main one being "who's gonna pay for this?"
But war was definitely not the answer.
Footnote to all this: The colonists weren't too keen on paying taxes anyway as Ben Franklin found out in 1759 with the Albany Plan. Franklin wrote: "The colonial assemblies and
most of the people were narrowly provincial in outlook, mutually
jealous, and suspicious of any central taxing authority."
Debate Magazine
