The aim of this article is to analyze the origins of counterrevolution by the metropolis in the American
Revolution of the XVIII century by comparing two main historiographical interpretations of this event:
as a socio-economic phenomenon and as a colonial revolt. Counterrevolution is understood as a sum of
decisions of the metropolis and their ideological bases directed against the actions and ideology of the
colonists. The research tasks include an overview of the two main interpretations of the American
Revolution; a description of the grounds for the English response to the activity of the colonists; examination
of the problems in the metropolis that led to specific proportions of counter-revolutionary forces in it;
a description of figures who can be considered counter-revolutionaries in English politics. The novelty of this
article is to examine the American Revolution of the XVIII century through the counter-revolutionary
response and the internal situation in the metropolis, what allows to be distant from the American-centered
view on the events of the war of independence of the United States. The article concludes that despite the
importance of socio-economic interpretation of the American Revolution, it is useless to search the origins of
the British counter-revolution. Only a view at the events as an anti-colonial revolt allows us to find and
analyze the origins of the counterrevolution in the metropolis, which should be sought in the challenge to the
system of relations between Great Britain and the colonies by the colonists, who put forward new ideas for
understanding the Constitution and raised painful issues of taxation and representation. So the English
counter-revolution is seen as an attempt to preserve the old constitutional and political system, which was
unsuccessfully attacked not only by the Americans, but also by internal radical forces. This led to the
preservation of pre-revolutionary principles of representation and government, only slightly changed by
moderate reforms of the aristocratic opposition.