Out of sheer curiosity, are you a U.S. citizen?You mean how could I possibly consider that the Republic could have been "avoided," as if it is something distasteful? ;-)
The point I'm making is that the entitled English could have kept almost all of their privileges had they not insisted that their system and its benefit for them was some sort of natural right not to be shared with grasping impertinent colonials. That behavior led to them losing it all, just as "let them eat cake" thinking led another set of entitled rich to the guillotine. Somebody else here said it is "moronic" to repeat the same behavior expecting a different result. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
