I read somewhere, many years ago, that it was considered revolution because each colony had independently rebelled against their royal governors, and then united to fight the war of secession. It sounded more like a lawyerly quibble than any real reason, but at least plausible.
The decision NOT to put a new king in the place of George III was an unusual, perhaps even extraordinary one, at least by the standards of modern history up till then, though I expect the Founders saw the establishment of the Roman republic as a precedent.
Yes, and that was absolutely the main precedent they were looking to.
There were a few more recent precedents I can think of. There were some small republics in Italy, but I don't think anyone cited them in the War for Independence. There was also the English Commonwealth; Patrick Henry famously said that King George should learn from King Charles's example, but I don't remember anyone praising the actual Commonwealth itself. Also, there was the Dutch Republic - I think that was cited, as it definitely should have been, though not as often as Rome.
I read somewhere, many years ago, that it was considered revolution because each colony had independently rebelled against their royal governors, and then united to fight the war of secession. It sounded more like a lawyerly quibble than any real reason, but at least plausible.
The decision NOT to put a new king in the place of George III was an unusual, perhaps even extraordinary one, at least by the standards of modern history up till then, though I expect the Founders saw the establishment of the Roman republic as a precedent.
Yes, and that was absolutely the main precedent they were looking to.
There were a few more recent precedents I can think of. There were some small republics in Italy, but I don't think anyone cited them in the War for Independence. There was also the English Commonwealth; Patrick Henry famously said that King George should learn from King Charles's example, but I don't remember anyone praising the actual Commonwealth itself. Also, there was the Dutch Republic - I think that was cited, as it definitely should have been, though not as often as Rome.