I feel compelled to apologize for my ignorant countrymen. We do not really teach American history in our primary schools. We teach American mythology. Few really understand the buildup to the Revolutionary War or what it was about.

However, you are being disingenuous by down playing the taxes in the Colonies. There were high taxes in the Colonies because there were high taxes throughout the Empire.

Britain had just fought a global war against France that had nearly bankrupted the Empire. Paul Kennedy in the excellent "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" spells out that Britain won that war by being able to outlast France financially.

But, just barely. It sucked the Empire dry doing it.

Paying for that war made everyone's taxes high. To say that taxation was not high is incorrect.

The question is, were the Colonies being taxed unfairly or excessively? That's a much more subjective point of debate.

It's very telling that the Revolutionary War was also a Civil War. In fact being the First American Civil War.

Consider; The Revolutionaries were only about 30% of the population. The Loyalists were also about 30% of the population.

We went to war with each other and it was savage. In the end over 25% of the population died or fled.

The founding father's went in for "political cleansing" in a big way. They butchered the Loyalists until the rest fled to Canada.

That's why there was no lingering "Pro British" faction after the war. That's why no old "Loyalists" came out for the British in 1812. There were none left.

All of that violence was in addition to Washington fighting the various British Commanders. However, we don't like to remember that. We have edited that part out of our "founding myths".

It's clear that the Revolutionaries chose their moment well. Britain was exhausted from the victory over France and didn't want an expensive colonial war.

A tax paying colony that mostly defended itself using local militias was an asset. A rebellious, fought over, drained colony that needed a big garrison was an economic sinkhole.

Plus Britain had won control of the Caribbean sugar islands away from the French. The sugar trade dwarfed the value of all of the colonies combined. It was the "oil" of that time.

Those islands were worth far more to the Crown then the recalcitrant Americans.