The American war for independence was hardly a revolution, more like an under new management. For the average citizen, material conditions didn’t change at all. Most institutions were carried over with slight rebranding. The democracy was limited and the constitution had a pound of protection for the ownership class for every ounce of franchise doled out to merchant class men.
Liberty and democracy are for 3rd grade textbooks. The truth is that the ownership class was sick of taking royal orders and tired of paying franchise fees. The crown foolishly defeated the other colonial and native powers on the continent, sapping royal strength while removing British utility to the Americans.
Next up are the Industrial Revolution, Manifest Destiny, and America as the ‘land of the free,’ which came as a surprise to the slaves
Philomena Cunk
What the ‘rebels’ wanted was to be able to build infrastructure and trade among the different colonies. If someone wanted to travel from New York to Charleston, it was faster for them to catch a ship to Bermuda and then wait for another ship heading to Charleston. No direct roads between the two cities, because the last thing the Crown wanted was competition from American factories.
Bridges, roads, and canals were the things they wanted; which makes the party of ‘small government’ look even more hypocritical.
The short version is that it was about the transfer of power from hereditary nobility to a different elite consisting of wealthy merchants and “gentlemen” farmers. This transfer was already happening anyway throughout the British Empire, the Americans just wanted to speed it up and codify it.
Thank you! Whenever I see new interactions of this meme, its annoying rather than entertaining now because it propagates the very same misperceptions about history that you debunk here.
Ultimately, the quintessential history of the US taught to the youth in the US (and reinforced in pop media for adults) is a fairy tale.
