American Revolution

I'm interested in who you guys think deserved to win the American Revolution: the colonists, or the British? We all know that the colonists DID win, but should they have?

Here are some of the facts:

We (Britain and the colonies) had just emerged from the French-Indian War. Ironically, the start of this war is largely contributed to none other than our first president: George Washington. Anyways, this victory over the French officially made Britain the most powerful country in the world. To pay for the war, Britain set up large taxes for the colonies. The colonies, of course, didn't like this and had no problem ignoring them, as Britain was several months travel away. The colonies would boycott one tax, Britain would submit, but then they'd add another. This cycle continued and eventually the colonists got sick of it.

Well, a few uproars occurred, one of the most famous being the Boston Tea Party. The King was outraged by this act of terrorism and shut down Boston Harbor. From then on, he ignored all complaints from the colonies and basically brought the hammer down. After much debate among the people, the Declaration of Independence was written and signed. This wasn't the start of the war, and certainly wasn't the end of it, but it was when the colonies became what we call United States.

The British army was the best of the best. They had more experience than the colonial army, more men, and better weapons. How could they loose? Well, they couldn't when faced man-to-man as most wars were fought. The British treated war much like a game, but the colonists didn't played by their rules. Colonial militias utilized Guerrilla warfare to compensate for their lack of men. Eventually the British caught on, but by then the horrible communication between the army in America and the King back in Europe had taken its toll.

Also keep in mind that the colonies really had nothing to loose. For Britain to win, what did they have to do? They had to kill every living being who opposed British rule. Not exactly an easy task. The colonies, however, simply had to wear down Britain's citizens back on the home land. No war becomes popular over time (quite the opposite), and the colonies could use this to their advantage. All they had to do was survive.

So, those are some of the facts, but obviously not all of them. Given the above (and whatever else you have to add), who do you think should have won?

the british army was unwilling to adapt to new styles of combat and lost


the victor deserved to win... I can't really think of any war in history where the nation who deserved to win did not win.

um, world war 2


stupid krazy

AJ, not quite a jungle...


but it didn't matter since they had no accurate weapons

KristallNacht wrote:um, world war 2


stupid krazy

oh yes... because the country who was dumb enough to start wars on both of its fronts and take tactical descisions from a charismatic person with the tactical sense of a monkey deserved to win their part of the war

no i meant ethically, they should have won.

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:Sigh...
You do understand the concepts of Colonialism, right?

The Seven Years war benefited nobody on this continent, and we had to pay, even though we did the bulk of the fighting.
The British saw fit to levy unjust taxes on us, to keep a company afloat when it was going to die anyways. We had no say in the matter, even though we were descended from loyal British citizens and were loyal British subjects to begin with.

Not to mention that we sought peace. Remember the Olive Branch Petition?
Mad King George wanted war, and he got more than he could stomach. Personally, I think that if Britain wasn't lead by a possibly porphyritic king, then the war wouldn't have happened.

For more information on the causes of the revolution, see Common Sense (written by Thomas Paine) or the Declaration of Independence (written by the Continental Congress).

the ability and higher probability of winning =/= deserving of winning


if you make poor choices with your power and end up getting screwed as a result... you did not deserve to win in the first place.