Originally Posted by
gumboot
I think Corsair is saying that all of the freedom and independence the American colonists wanted was ultimately obtained by all other British colonies without having to wage a bloody revolutionary war, thus suggesting that the revolutionary war was unnecessary.
Another thing to consider is that shortly after the revolutionary war the British Empire started to become rather more anti-racism and slavery. Had the US remained in the Empire like the other colonies they most likely would have adopted the rest of the Empire's attitude to slavery and non-white peoples much sooner, and the Civil War and more recently Civil Rights movement might have not been required.
On the other hand, of course, we cannot be sure how the other colonies would have been treated if the UK had not just lost a nasty revolution. Certainly at the time of the Revolution there was no sign that the UK was in any mood to relent. So maybe the reason the Canadians didn't need a revolution was because we had it first. Of course then there's the question of slavery. If, for example, there had been no revolution, what would have prevented the south from seceding and waging a war of its own independence? Could we have counted on as intense an anti-secession effort from a British colony as we did from the Union? Or would we have ended up with something like South Africa? I"m inclined to agree that the revolution was not as successful in the very long run as it seems to have been, but we'll never know for sure.