> Most of Europe, the UK in particular started in 1066 and by WWI (say) had a monarchy that was almost entire symbolic in power and fully deferred to the electe

> Most of Europe, the UK in particular started in 1066 and by WWI (say) had a monarchy that was almost entire symbolic in power and fully deferred to the elected Government to make decisions. Even by the time of the American Revolution, the British monarch was largely a figurehead, and Parliament held the majority of the real power The American rebels blamed all the policies they hated on King George III – that made good propaganda, but if they'd directed their anger at Lord North (the PM) instead, it would have been more accurate The historian David Cannadine [0] even argues "the founding fathers gave to the American presidency just those powers they erroneously believed King George III still possessed" – possibly suggesting that it wasn't just propaganda, but rather that on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean they'd failed to understand how the British system actually worked > The US "breaking away" from the King's taxes was a good example of UK investors protecting their investments and further weakening the ability of UK monarchy from raising taxes for petty family disputes (ie. wars much larger than the American Revolutionary War) While the Seven Years War did involve some "petty family disputes", they weren't what it was really all about, any more than the First World War was really about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The Seven Years War arguably started in North America, as a war between France and Britain (that sub-theatre is generally known as the "French and Indian War")–a war which the Americans wholeheartedly supported, on the British side–and one of the complaints of the Declaration of Independence was that the British had conceded too much to France in the peace negotiations (e.g. agreeing to allow newly conquered Quebec to keep the French legal system) [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32741802 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32741802 – same source as I linked in my other comment