The Founding Fathers were committing treason against the most powerful empire that the world to date had ever seen …No they were not. Can we get past that bit of leftist rhetoric?
The FFs were indeed committing treason against the King. Treason is a legal term. If British law applied, they were traitors.
They, however, rebelled against and rejected British law. If they won, they’d be heroes. If they lost, they’d be traitors. They were perfectly well aware of this.
That’s where the quote comes from. “Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.” The treason of the Founders prospered, so we don’t call it that.
I would object more to the claim that the empire they were rebelling against was the most powerful the world had ever seen. The metric to be used is unclear. But the British Army of 1775 was <50,000 men and scattered all over the world. There were several European powers with armies that were a multiple of this and probably more efficient to boot. Russia, France, Prussia, Austria among them. The small size of the British Army at the time is of course why much of their force in America was composed of German mercenaries.
There is no question the Royal Navy was the best in the world, but our Revolution was won at Yorktown primarily because the French Navy turned back a Royal Navy rescue force.
Was the British Empire of 1775 actually more powerful than the Roman, Mongol or Tang empires? Don’t know any way to actually compare them.
The point is that the they knew that the British considered them traitors and that if they were captured or were defeated, they could well swing for it.
Huh?
Leftist?