: The Revolutionary War is in the British curriculum, at
: GCSE level at least. Oh, and by the way, a revolution,
: by its very definition, must affect the mother country
: in some way. Britain wasn't affected at all, it was
: simply left, therefore "War of Independence"
: is more accurate.
This is just crazy. Britain lost valuable tonnage of sugar, tobacco, and other crops that it had previously relied on, creating a recession in the country that ultimately led to a populist revolution and massive reforms to British government.
From the Oxford History of GB: "...The economic problems caused to a nascent industrial society by a world war and the accompanying embargoes on trade were immense..." a tripling of the English national debt, recession, and multiple financial crises were the result of England's loss. Why do you THINK the English attempted to fight a way across an ocean in 1776 and then later attempted to retake their ex-colonies in the early 19th century? These are hardly actions of a country that "wasn't affected at all" by the war.
The reason it's called a War of Independence is not because it didn't affect England, but because it didn't take place in England, and historians now see the English hold on the colonies as tenuous from the very start.
If you choose to disagree with this perspective, please bring a source to cite.
-David
