Opinion of the American Revolutionary War

[CJK]

Discuss.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wait, wasn't this a JSojourner sock?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Yes.  This is debatable, but the Patriots' perception of what was going on, whether right or wrong, certainly justified it to them.

[CJK]

Okay, here's my beef against the Revolutionary War.

The complaint was about small tax increases imposed by Parliament. The argument was that since the colonies didn't have representation in parliament, they couldn't be taxed.

Does that make any sense at all? All the colonies were "colonies" and by definition they were subordinate to the home country. They were issued Royal Charters by the King, and since 1689 the king's functions had been de facto under Parliament's control.

Moreover, the colonies never asked for representation in the British Parliament. So if parliament had no right to tax the colonies, they would essentially be admitting they lacked any authority at all and the colonies were actually independent nations.

Parliament made every reasonable attempt to compromise. In 1770 they actually repealed every tax except the one on tea, and no one had a problem with it initially. But in 1773 they threw the tea overboard (instead of just boycotting it) provoking Parliament to crackdown on Massachussetts. This was used as the pretext to start building an independent army.

In 1775 Lord North offered to suspend taxation if the colonies taxed themselves for their defense. This was again rejected.

The fighting at Lexington and Concord was completely unnecessary. The rebels already knew in advance about the British plan to raid Concord, and they had already moved the ammunition elsewhere. There was NO REASON for the local militia to confront the British at all, unless it was to start something. Yet Lexington was the pretext for an all out rebellion to begin.

In 1778 the British offered to drop all the taxes in exhange for peace, and this was rejected. Proving the colonists' bad faith the whole time. This was cited by Benedict Arnold as a reason for his defection.

And what about the cost of the war? 6,800 colonists were killed in battle out of a white population of 2-2.5 million. That would be the modern equivalent of 850,000 Americans killed in a war--proportionately more costly than World War II. An additional 8,000 died as POWS, the modern equivalent of 1 million. The country was also left deeply indebted and economically depressed.

The war also destablilized French finances contributing to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

The Revolutionary War was a War Of Choice^tm, not Necessity.

[nolesfan2011]

heck yes, FREEDOM!

[opebo]

It certainly didn't make anything any better.  And nowadays look at the loyal colonies - Canada and Australia:  though terrible in certain ways, they're overall much less horrible than the Bad Place.

[Lambsbread]

'MURICA F**K YEAH

[DC Al Fine]

No, and you should all rejoin the crown

[TNF]

Yes. The British were oppressive and needed to be removed from power.

[Torie]

My attitude is sort of like Ben Franklin's was. He resisted it, and wanted to work things out, but in the end, when it came time to choose, and after realizing that those in charge in London had a real "attitude" problem, he joined the rebels. His son did not (he moved to the UK), and ties were forever broken. Sad that.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

We must remember the American Revolution, beside winning independence for the colonies, played very important role in world events, like inspiring in good part the French Revolution.

[Indy Texas]

It certainly didn't make anything any better.  And nowadays look at the loyal colonies - Canada and Australia:  though terrible in certain ways, they're overall much less horrible than the Bad Place.

It's just somewhat embarrassing that when you look at the "white" British colonies that rebelled against the Mother Country versus those that didn't, you've got Canada, Australia and New Zealand in one corner, and we've got to share an umbrella with South Africa and Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.