As the 250th anniversary looms, it is time to admit something. The American Revolution, however benign its consequences, was fueled by a conspiracy theory of QAnon proportions. The patriots, along with many British Whigs, convinced themselves that George III, that dim and dutiful dullard, was scheming to restore the monarchy to a level of autocratic power it had not enjoyed since the Middle Ages.

Obviously, that did not happen. Great Britain, like North America, continued to evolve after 1782 toward greater pluralism, and the king surrendered what few powers he still had to Parliament. Similar things happened in other English-speaking democracies.