The Least You Need to Know
Unfair taxation, limits on westward settlement, and the involuntary quartering of British soldiers united the colonies in rebellion.
Thomas Paine (Common Sense) and Thomas Jefferson (The Declaration of Independence helped elevate a colonial revolution to the status of a momentous world event.
American troops were citizen soldiers, fighting at home and committed to their cause. The British soldiers were a professional army doing a grim job in a distant land.