Just some food for thought, our ancestors went to war with the largest superpower in the world for a few percentage points in excise tax
Britain was not the largest superpower in the world at the time. France and Spain were each stronger than Britain back in the 1700s, and BOTH OF THEM helped the USA.
Britain could've won the war if it was just them vs. the filthy colonials; they could draw troops in from loyalists in the colonies, back from Britain, even foreign troops from Germany and India, considering the fact that the British had influence there at the time, since the King of England was a German prince. But when the Spanish and French empires joined the fray, the British stood to lose more than just the colonies; they could've lost India, their crown jewel, and once the fighting got too hot, they pulled out and allowed the dirty colonials to go free.
Britain's reputation as a military power during the colonial era was largely overblown, considering the fact that they did well against coastal enemies, but struggled against other European powers or nations with sufficient technology. A backwater country like Russia could give the British enough resistance that the Brits would need the French to help them keep Moscow away from gobbling up the Ottomans. It got to the point where, in the 1870s, one full century after the American Revolution, the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said that "If the British army lands on Europe, I'll get the Belgian Police to arrest them!" Similarly, Britain's "naval tradition" had its own skeptics back home, with Winston Churchill of all people saying that it's nothing more but "rum, sodomy, and the lash." Especially since they tended to "recruit" drunks who passed out at the taverns.
So no, the American founding fathers didn't go to war with the largest superpower on earth for a few percentage points in excise tax. They already had their own governments, their own army, and they shrewdly knew that if Britian fought hard against them, the other colonial powers would sweep in and take advantage of Britain's weakness, and that would cause the British to call it quits and reach for a compromise. It's like going after someone on the street when you know you have two other guys that are just as strong, if not stronger than him, backing you up.
