• minorkeys@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Americans didn’t, the American elites did. Americans just died in yet another war started by the aristocracy.

    • MortUS@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      To get out from under The British Empire, which is pretty understandable during the time period.

      • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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        19 minutes ago

        Not very understandable. Britain had become a new and particularly liberal democracy by this point. The colonists were paying much less tax than their cousins back home, and “The Empire” didn’t really get started until after the Americans had revolted anyway.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Except that’s not 100% correct.

      Sure the American Elite joined in, well, some of them did. Mostly it was revolution driven by the middle class. Maybe the upper middle class, but the stamp and tea taxes were incredibly unpopular.

      I’d imagine the sentiment among the poorer people was something along the lines of “better to be lorded over by a local asshole, than one half the world away”.

      Also, the quartering bullshit. That was just as unpopular, so much so that we have an entire amendment banning it specifically.