Why did the United States achieve independence in 1776 and not in 1676?

King Philip’s War between Native American tribes and the English settlers and their native allies convulsed New England in 1676–77. This engraving is believed to show an attack on Sudbury, Massachusetts, on April 21, 1676 — almost exactly 100 years before the outbreak of the American War of Independence.

The colonies were kind of busy in 1676:

• New England was in the middle of King Philip’s War, a bloody, all-out struggle between English settlers and Native Americans, particularly Wampanoags and Narragansetts. Half of the towns in New England were attacked by Indians, and a dozen were burned to the ground. The whites and their Native allies eventually prevailed, but New England probably wouldn’t have been receptive to a major political struggle at the same time.
• In 1676, a man named Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt in Virginia against the governor, William Berkeley, and burned the capital of Jamestown. The causes of the rebellion were complex, but it convulsed the colony for some months until the authorities could stamp it out.
• North and South Carolina didn’t exist yet as separate colonies, being regions within the colony of Carolina.
• East Jersey and West Jersey had been chartered just two years before, in 1674. The Jerseys didn’t hook up into New Jersey until 1702.
• Pennsylvania didn’t exist yet, not being chartered until 1681. Philadelphia was founded the following year.
• Georgia didn’t exist until 1732.

So, the colonies were in no shape to take drastic action against the Crown or the mother country as early as 1676. However, historians say that the events of that time helped form a distinct American identity. For instance, the fighting in New England was carried out by militia, with no involvement of King’s troops. The same was true in Virginia, I believe. The colonies started to get the idea that they could handle things on their own, and got really serious about it several decades later.