zeogold: I'm not even going to bother asking about the terrorist thing since we're going to get completely off-topic with that, but the rights of the colonists WERE infringed upon. The British government imposed taxes without proper consultation with the various governing bodies of each colony, known by the phrase "
NO taxation without representation".
There were a whole host of other reasons before that, including property rights (limitations on expansion) and lack of political voice, but the taxation was the one that drove them over the edge.
The British government had any right to impose taxes. According to the magna carta YOU had no right of "NO taxation without representation" (slight correction in your post ;)
You WANTED to have one which the regular government decided against. YOU decided because of this (and other reasons) to rebel against YOUR regular government.
And NONE of the colonies had a governing body. They were part and subjects to the crown. Your rights were to be subject to the crown, nothing else :P
zeogold: We drafted a constitution which was followed, set up a working system of government, and stuck to that plan.
The French did not.
With a lot of those ideas coming from the French and good old Europe :P
zeogold: That's only part of the problem. The French had a terrible plan to begin with. They had no actual direction.
They decided to overthrow their government, and...then what? They didn't appoint leaders, instead they stayed in a perpetual state of "DOWN WITH THE ARISTOCRACY!" by slicing the heads off of anybody deemed an enemy of the nation (or, in other words, anybody remotely rich).
They may have gotten rid of a problem, but they traded it for an even worse problem.
Actually wrong, they did had a plan, BUT it failed as too much power was in the hands of a few, a thing which America didn't had. There was NO churches, there was ONLY one church!. And if THIS church said something is HAD to be followed. So even worse of what you could even THINK off being bad in the bible belt. Most of France was following THIS church. One thing what the revolution did TRY to break!
It would be the same as if a party in the US NOWADAYS would say to the bankers/hedge-fonds you have to give up your wealth, right now. Can you see this happening? And even this is not getting close enough.
I know you zeogold, but you do see this part too much through some rosy tainted glasses ;)
The problem in Europe was really the church and clergy.
Hence my question which you did not answer for freedom of religion and the basis for this.