Quote Originally Posted by MMI View Post
No, despite what "The Patriot" tells you, despite even what your history books tel you (remember, history is written by the victor) the War of Independence was an act of treason, not for liberty, but for American greed (in place of British greed I concede willingly); and it was fomented by the French and Spanish who sought to undermine British supremacy in America. Frankly, I believe Americans show very little gratitude to the French and Spanish, without whose aid they would not have achieved independence - at least, not at that time.
I'm not basing my opinions on any movies, or any other fictions. And I willingly concede your points about treason and greed. Since the advent of civilization it has made the world go 'round. Even the history books are not necessarily accurate when dealing with opinions instead of facts. Sure, certain facts cannot be disputed, but the interpretations of those facts are dependent upon your views of history. If you are a British citizen you will, naturally, tend to think of the American revolution as an act of treason, something which I believe our founding fathers would agree on. American's, on the other hand, will tend to look upon it as a just war for independence from a tyrannical and "greedy" monarchy which was exploiting the colonies while not giving the people the rights of British citizens. It was a simple question of whether the profits from American resources and labor should be given to London, making their rich landowners wealthier, or remain in the Americas, making OUR rich landowners wealthier. Nothing new about that.

As for the French and Spanish, as you pointed out, they supported the rebellion not out of a love for America but out of hatred for Britain. And lets face it: we have helped the French out over the years. We gave the French more than $23 million, plus canceled debts over $3.7 million, for a worthless chunk (only 828,000 square miles) of land called Louisiana. We helped bail them out of two world wars. We even helped them return to Southeast Asia (Viet Nam) following WW2 despite promises made to Ho Chi Minh. For crying out loud, we even gave them EuroDisney! What more could they want?