Reply #25: There was also a segment of the British political community

[LibertyLover]

who supported the revolution. George III wasn't a bad king, he was actually quite progressive in many areas, nor was he especially arrogant. However, even at this point in time, England had a representational monarchy with the king having few actual powers (albeit more than the current monarch has)to affect the way his government carried out its policies. All that being equal, England was getting tired of American War and when the French and Spanish allied themselves with us against her, the specter of another 7 Years' War (aka French and Indian War here in the US) reared its ugly head. The 7 Years' War has arguable been called the First First World War. It was fought on multiple continents (Europe, North America and Asia) by multiple world powers. England was simply not prepared to engage in a multi-continent war against the French and the Spanish. With the French fleet making sure that the English fleet didn't relieve Yorktown, French soldiers fighting at Yorktown alongside American troops and French and Spanish money and arms doing the fighting, the defeat of Cornwallis was the last straw. Actually, if I remember correctly, there had already been tentative peace negotiation feelers put out by the English prior to Yorktown. After it, they had no effective fighting force left in the nascent US, the troops in New York being blockaded by a combination French-US fleet. They had no other option but to retreat to the peace conference.