What do British history books teach about the US Revolutionary War?

Question

Just curious what British history books teach about the US Revolutionary War? What is their perspective? What historical significance is placed on the loss of the colonies, if any? Just curious.

Answer 1

What a great question, just in time for Dominion Day and Independence Day.

I'm just another Yank here. British author Simon Schama has written a trilogy of the British isles and also a more recent book on the relationship during the American Revolution between the then colonies and England.

I stand to be corrected on this, but Schama's take was that the British Empire, prior to the American revolution, was centered largely in North America, afterwards, that energy was spent in India and to a lesser extent in Africa.

If we can imagine a British Empire in the 19th Century that still held the American colonies, it may have never attempted to create the Raj in India, nor undertaken the exploration of Africa, with the energy the empire did.

Schama sees the British as moving along an arc of increased emphasis on liberal qualities such as democracy, human rights, civil rights. Those were sometimes checked by the conservative influence and events of the times. To Schama, it seemed, the American Revolution was an attempt by Englishmen to claim the inheritance of these liberal qualities of the empire for themselves.

The revolution forced the empire to attempt to reform its policies towards colonies. But this was bolting the door after the Americans had left-- it was too late to save the colonies for the motherland. Nevertheless, those reforms paid off by keeping parts of the empire loyal.

You can imagine, if you like, an alternate history in which the British defeated the revolutionaries, and the empire was reformed and it also had a large population of English speakers centered in the North Atlantic. The world would have been different. Better? Hmmn... That's another question.

Answer 2

hmmmm, that would be an interesting take on things..considering what our history books say. I bet they were bragging that they lost.

edazesaz...you have a very limited understanding. And that bragadotious attitude is what gives Americans a bad name. God empowered us for a reason. And it wasn't to be butts.

Answer 3

Because the U.S. runs the world

Answer 4

Good question....I thought with 4 answers you would get one good answer....now you have 5 bad answers....I can't wait to find out.

Answer 5

they're like, "whatever, we didn't want those stupid colonies anyway"

Answer 6

go to ask.com