The American Revolution from a British POV

[Steel God]

I obviously can't answer from a British perspective, but I would dispute the idea that the American Revolution was in any way shape pr form a 1st Civil War. From all that I have read I would have to agree that some 1/3 of the population could be counted as loyalist, that support did not manifest itself into very much support, as indicated by the amount of loyalist militia that was mustered compared to colonial militia.

The start of the revolution was masterfully manipulated by the Colonists, and badly botched by the Crown, and the net result was to insure that the war started with a significant majority of popular support, which waned slightly in the first year, and then swung up again after Saratoga and never again approached anything remotely like parity in terms of for and against.

As some others have mentioned about French intervention, I have viewed it as a death blow to British hopes of a victory. Without French intervention the British had slim hopes, with intervention they had none.

As for the assertion that the British Empire was better off in the long run, I guess from some weird perspective that could be true, at least for a century and a half maybe, but given the relative positions of the two nations in todays world I don't think it would stand up to scrutiny.

Paul