Why did European people settle in America and later create another nation of their own?

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In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote, "there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island."

The United States was a country of continental size, far away from England. As such, the people that controlled it naturally wanted to have their own destinies. After a few generations, the "colonists" lost some of their feelings for the "mother" country (which many had never visited), and developed feelings for each other, that is, their peers.

Collectively, the "colonists" woke up one day, looked at each other, thought, and said something like, "If we throw out the mother country, we can have this vast continent all to ourselves."

I call it the "130 year itch" (for British colonies). Australia was settled in 1770 and became independent in 1900. Canada became independent in 1871; the transfer from French to British holdings began with a war in 1741. America's 1776 Declaration of Independence is 130 years after 1646; a good "time-weighted" average of American settlement.

A similar thing happened to the Spanish colonies in South America, but not on the 130 year timetable.

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