"Yeah, but when does one consider a country like the United Kingdom to actually be established? The Act of Union? The Norman Invasion?" Franklin smiled slightly. "If we're gonna have a comparison here, we need some parameters."

"Some of the people who come to America were escaping religious persecution, but a lot just came for better opportunities. Even more came over as punishment for mostly shockingly petty crimes, as indentured servants. As for the tea tax, Britain basically expected the colonials to pay for their own defence. But with New France having been taken over, the colonists didn't have enough to fear anymore. And the fact is that, well, it was impossible to really rule the Thirteen Colonies from London past a certain point.

The ideologies of liberalism and democracy may have been the spark, but the tinder and firewood was sitting there ready."