Alva Review-Courier -

In April 1775 the American Revolutionary War began. People living in the colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America revolted, wanting independence from Great Britain. Great Britain, by the way, was created in 1707 when England, Wales and Scotland united.

Old history textbooks used a phrase which, thankfully, newer books rarely do. The old texts referred to Great Britain as the colonists’ “mother country.” This meant, of course, that the British government had given birth to the colonies.

The theory holds that the colonists had grown up and, like ungrateful children, wanted now to be fr...