In retrospect, we tend to view the history of colonial America as nothing more than a prologue to the Revolution, and to assume that colonial Americans were, in some way, destined to seek independence from Britain.

Maybe it's because we can't possibly conceive of having to eat black pudding three times a week.

But colonists didn't initially think of themselves as waging a war for independence. Instead, they believed they were defending their rights as Englishmen to resist misguided and corrupt government officials and representatives and to drink cheap tea. 

That last one is a debated right but one that Shmoop 1000% supports. 

To crush the puny but egotistical cash cow colonists, the British asserted their authority. To counter these assertions, the colonists redoubled their activism, the Brits countered the Americans, and the Americans countered the Brits, until the whole thing became a giant passive-aggressive mess. 

Let's back it up. The British had raised taxes all over the place in order to pay down their war debt, and they also put limits on where and when the colonies could expand westward, despite the fact that they had just fought a war over westward expansion. The colonists expressed their opposition to these rules by rioting, burning effigies of English officials (they hadn't yet realized that hitting piñata versions of officials was much more fun and delicious), organizing vigilante associations, and boycotting imported goods. You know, the ones where the Brits made 500% profit.

The colonists' faith in King George III was dashed when he rejected their appeals and condemned their protests as an unlawful rebellion. Of course, it might have been a bit ambitious of them to hope that he would accept their protests as a "lawful rebellion."

But hey, a nation can dream, right?

Once the monarchy was permanently removed from their Christmas card list, the American Patriots went full-blown freedom fighter and set forth not only to win independence but also to build a new kind of society.

The Americans were practically insane: they were trying to unseat an aristocracy and defeat the world's most powerful navy and a great army, all while establishing a new republican government without falling prey to the forces of chaos, despotism, and the Kraken.

If you don't already recognize the importance of the American Revolution, chances are you won't be able to understand or appreciate most of what follows in American history. This is the beginning of it all, the creation of the United States of America as a—well, superficially—unified and independent country. 

The story of the Revolution lies at the heart of what makes our country unique in the history of nations. The revolutionary principles that led to the nation's founding continue to influence American society, as we still turn to the founding generation seeking guidance, inspiration, or even just a useful quotation to support one contemporary political claim or another.

Whenever critics of current American policies argue that we're forsaking our historic role as a nation dedicated to freedom and equality, they're invoking the principles of the American Revolution. Hey, at least as they understand them. 

Similarly, proponents of current government policy often refer to the American Revolution and the principles of the founders to support their tactics. And when critics of patriotic sentimentalism seek to debunk the assumptions or myths of the past, they'll often point to the paradox of slavery and freedom that underlay the Revolutionary period.

For our younger readers, guess what? Many young Americans were your age when they signed up with the Continental Army and Navy, even if it was just to work as deck hands or play the drums or the fife for eight bucks a month. 

Enslaved children ran away with their mothers and fathers to gain their own freedom throughout the war, especially when the conflict distracted their owners. Some of these Black boys and girls actually fought or provided forms of critical support, like helping the cooks, looking for firewood, and doing other day labor. This could've been on both the British and American sides. 

Young stable boys in Boston were some of the first to run across town and warn Paul Revere when they overheard British officials whispering about their impending march on Lexington in April 1775. Teenage girls carried out the dangerous job of relaying the Patriots' messages to one another. Other young women carded, spun, and wove clothing, stockings, and other important items to help maintain the colonial boycott on British goods and keep their brothers, boyfriends, and fathers protected on the battlefield and warm amidst the harsh cold of the winter army camps.

And for all our readers, young and old: Did you ever wonder whether American society and government might have turned out completely different from what we got? If you haven't, you should.

For colonists from a wide variety of classes, regions, and backgrounds all envisioned independence differently. For nearly half a million enslaved Americans in the 1760s, the Revolution offered a priceless chance for freedom, whether by escaping to fight behind British lines or by rebelling, or by petitioning legislatures for emancipation, or by gaining freedom by fighting with the Americans.

For some American white women, the Revolution offered a chance to eke out more liberties than they had possessed under the rule of English common law. For the masses of poor and middling yeoman farmers, artisans, mechanics, and merchants throughout the 13 colonies, the creation of an unprecedented republican government from scratch offered not only freedom of trade with all the countries in the world, but the chance to participate in a more egalitarian society than had ever existed before. 

Although the hopes and expectations of many of these groups were ultimately disappointed, the Revolution did establish a set of principles that could be invoked later to make moral claims for a more just society.