• A fact that is frequently overlooked in the US, although it is flat out mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, is that one of the motivations for the American Revolution was precisely the British Crown's refusal to sanction the American colonists' expansion into the West at the expense of Indian rights. It is not surprising then that many native Indians sided with the British in the revolutionary war as the United States, as they correctly feared, proved to be a far more hostile power to them than the Crown.

    It is also important to remember that the American Revolution was actually a tale of not one, but actually two new countries: on one hand, the United States, which went its own way, and, on the other hand, Canada, which remained loyal to the Crown, even though Canada as a separate national polity within the British Empire would not emerge until much later in the 19th century.