We touched on it in A level history (UK). We didn’t go into great detail, but it was essentially that you guys ran with the ideas of Locke, Voltaire and Rousseau, and a lot of the reason why you were successful is because you were bankrolled and aided by the French, who wanted to weaken the British Empire.
Again, this was more just general class discussion, we didn’t actually officially study it. We studied the French one instead because in this part of the world it’s seen as a much bigger deal.
Brit here, I don’t remember being taught at all about the American revolution. Almost all of the history I do remember in school was based around Tudors, Edwardians, Victorians, and the two World Wars.
It’s not taught here in Northern Ireland. We are taught about the history of potatoes and the Cold War.
First of all, in the UK it is referred to as the American War of Independence.
Second, in the history of the UK, it is one of a series of rather obscure wars we fought with the French in the 18th century—War of the Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years War… most of which the UK won. But it isn’t really any more important to Britain than any of those, and arguably less important than the French Revolutionary Wars. It’s a historical curiosity.
UK—It was briefly brought up when we studied the English civil war, by way of Hobbes -> Locke -> American independence.
Brit here. Studied history all through school, university and up to MA level. I have never learned about the American revolution in any formal setting.
There is a very simple reason why the American revolution is not really taught in the UK (or anywhere outside of the USA): it isn’t really that important. As far as the British Empire went, it grew dramatically in the century after the revolution and developed a more global reach. As far as European history goes, the French revolution is far more important as it had far more tangible effects for Europeans. In fact, the American revolution could be looked in the context of British/French colonial rivalries.
In case you’re curious, people in the UK generally don’t identify at all with the “British” side of the Revolutionary War in America, and see it as an extension of a somewhat tyrannical British political establishment, not at all representative of the average British person (unlike British views of the World Wars, for example, regardless of the establishment’s real motivations for engaging in them).
So I think most Brits would agree with seeing it as the rebellion against unfair taxation… but from the British crown rather than “the UK”.
When you have over 2,000 years of history including monarchical struggle, religious tyranny, our own civil war, attempted invasion, two world wars on our door step etc, then it just mostly gets missed.
Elsewhere around the world
In Poland it was mentioned as a sidenote to French Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars.
Hungary: It is taught as a prelude to the “Great French Revolution.” The most popular part of it is the Boston Tea Party, and I really liked the ‘join-or-die’ snake in our book. But for most of us the American Revolution is the story of an everyday farmer, who is haunted by his war memories and wants nothing more than to live peacefully on his small plantation with his children… :)
I’m in Canada and our high-school history was primarily history of the aboriginal peoples. (Even other Canadian history was really not mentioned except where it directly informed the aboriginal’s dealings with the colonists.)
The bit of world history they did teach us, however, was all about the French Revolution.
It’s not that it was just a much bigger deal in that part of the world… The American Revolution was a huge event for the United States and continues to inform politics there to this day. But outside of their borders… The French Revolution fundamentally altered the course of Western civilization.
