The American Revolutionary War was not Revolutionary.

8 min readSep 15, 2023

The American Revolutionary Wars for American Independence was a conflict fought between the second Continental Congress/Confederate States of America or the United Confederate States of America from 1775 with the first Battles at Concord and Lexington and the conflict’s conclusion in 1783.

The American Revolution is remembered in popular culture, particularly in the United States, as a revolutionary conflict against the tyranny of Kings.

Unfortunately, this is historical nonsense that is politically necessary to maintain the unity of the USA.

The United States in 1783 and its final constitution, which came into effect in 1789, was necessary to build up secular saints in the form of the founding fathers and the viewpoint of tyranny against liberty to provide this new nation with legitimacy.

All countries require their founding myths, heroes and villains. For the Americans, this was British tyranny, the tyranny of Kings and the perceived abuses of American citizens with little basis.

However, it can be argued, and I will argue, that the American Revolution was a war for independence based on self-interest and political interest and not upon revolutionary principles near those principles were used as a means to justify rebellion.

These arguments are supported by historians such as David Starkey and Robert Middlekauff, who wrote the book Glorious Cause of the American Revolution from 1763 to 1789.

Myths and Lies

In the American popular psyche, the American Revolution was a war against British tyranny and the tyranny of King George III of England.

This is false on multiple accounts because the British in the 18th century were the home of liberalism, the development of modern capitalism and the industrial revolution.

Furthermore, the British Isles was one of the most unrestricted places on the continent and free from French tyranny, the Bordon dynasty of France and the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire.

Also, England’s freedom of the press was formally established in Great Britain with the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695.

Secondly, the kings of England have been limited monarchies and not absolute monarchies since before the Norman conquest in 1066, preceded by the old Anglo-Saxon kings of England from 927 until the death of Harold Godwin at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Preceding the Norman conquests, the kings of England still had limited powers, and constitutional limitations were placed upon the power of English kings since King John of England signed the Magna Carter in 1215.

England never had and never will have an absolute monarch.

By the early 18th century, England’s Kings were now kings of Great Britain since the act of Union with Scotland in 1707 meant that monarchs were primary ceremonial positions.

The last monarch to overrule Parliament or not follow Parliament’s wishes was Queen Anna, who reigned from 1702 until 1714, being the last Stewart Queen of England with the dynasty ruling England from 1603 until 1714.

Why Rebellion Was Necessary

The reason for the American Revolution was not revolutionary but merely a war of independence based upon the interests of the perceived interests of the English colonies and the English homeland no longer aligning.

The English Parliament, or the British Parliament, passed taxation acts such as the Stamp Act and the so-called Intolerable Acts to get tax revenue from the American colonists.

The British had no effective way to collect taxation from the American colonists in the 13 colonies. Each colony had its state legislature, but the legislative houses proposed no taxation programs or means of taxing the colonies.

The historian David Starkey argued that the British passing Acts on goods in America was merely a way for the British government to try and get the American legislative houses to devise their means of taxation.

Thirteen colonies with the first permanent English colony in America were founded in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

The founder of the Jamestown settlement was the adventurer Captain John Smith, famous for being saved from execution by Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief.

The way the English and later the British founded their colonies was a hands-off approach and not in total the 1760s with the administration based in London attempt to tax its colonists.

This hands-off approach and virtual independence of American colonists made taxation practically impossible, which is why the United States, until the present day, has a solid anti-taxation culture.

This is why the United States did not have general taxation until the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865, due to the American political and social culture of taxation.

The financial requirements of the Civil War prompted the first American income tax in 1861.

At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax.

Also, a central bank was not created in the USA until December 23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.

It stood as a classic example of compromise — a decentralised central bank that balanced the competing interests of private banks and populist sentiment.

No Taxation Without Representation

Great Britain’s constitution and political make-up from the 18th century until the present day does not lend itself to federalism due to the nature and size of the population of England’s constituent nations, with England dominating the British Isles. Scotland in 1700 had a population of around 400,000, with England’s population of over 6 million.

This discrepancy in numbers continues until this day, and that’s why any attempt at federalism will lead to division and eventual breakup of the United Kingdom.

With the creation of dissolved assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland saw a growing separatism because Great Britain is not a union of nations but a union of parliaments.

(In September 1997, referendums were held in Scotland and Wales, and most voters chose to establish a Scottish Parliament and a National Assembly for Wales. In Northern Ireland, devolution was a key part of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, supported by voters in a referendum in May 1998.)

With this knowledge, 13 colonies would not have been able to change how Britain functioned as a nation, which meant that independence may have been the only option.

This is also supported by the acceptance of American Independence in 1783 that England’s colonies and empire would eventually break up due to self-interest.

This argument in philosophy was argued by the Conservative philosopher Edmund Burke and Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, arguing the eventual death of the British Empire in the 18th century.

Both thinkers put forward self-interest in the governing ideology behind the American Revolution and for the future of the British Empire going in the same direction.

Nations’ quirks make them great and strange to outsiders, for the English is their parliamentary government, which keeps the union of the British Isles alive.

The American Revolution and its Impact on American Culture

William Pitt, the Elder and former Prime Minister of Great Britain, stated, ‘ The Americans are England’s children, not our bastards.’ Unfortunately, the Americans rightly or wrongly felt they were treated as bastards, not legitimate children of England.

During the American War of Independence, William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, marched on Philadelphia and defeated General George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine, which took place on 11 September 1777.

The conduct of British Regulars and German mercenaries in looting and living off the land turned the colonists against the British military, trying to crush the rebellion and traumatised the American public.

Also, neither side is certain who fired first during the battle of Concord and Lexington. Due to American regulators perceived to have fired first, it further traumatised the American political consciousness.

According to the American journalist and YouTube Star Johnny Harris, the United States will never get rid of its guns because Americans are frightened or paranoid about a strong central government.

This is why the Second and Third Amendments of the American Constitution are so fundamental to the American psyche.

(The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791)

(Third Amendment to the United States Constitution: No Soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the Owner’s consent, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.)

From the point of view of the 13 colonies in the American political culture, American citizens/English citizens were attacked and invaded by German mercenaries and English soldiers to protect their liberties, and instead, their property was destroyed.

And this is why the American Revolution and the American mind was a revolution in reality, looking at the facts and conventions of the time.

The American Congress copied and pasted the English constitution into the American one in 1789, and, according to the historian David Starkey, the Americans dressed up the English constitution with Roman decoration and French universalism.

Starkey also argues that the United States was so successful because it used English constitutional and English common law of the 18th century, making the American system not revolutionary.

This will compare and contrast the American Revolution of 1776 to the French Revolution of 1789.

The French had five republics and two empires within 200 years; in contrast, the United States had one brief civil war in the middle of the 19th century.

Rule, Britannia Song by Thomas Arne

Lyrics

When Britain first, at Heaven’s command

Arose from out the azure main;

This was the charter of the land,

And guardian angels sang this strain:

“Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves: