Hannibal wrote:
Elmarnieh wrote:
20% is the percentage needed fora successful revolution.
Where did you get this number?
He's most likely basing it off the commonly-stated percentage of people that supported the American revolution. 20% may or may not be the percentage needed for a successful revolution; it depends greatly on the rest of the population and the circumstances. In the American revolution a sizeable faction didn't care one way or the other which was a huge advantage for the revolutionaries, especially when fighting a power that had to support and command its forces from thousands of miles away with nothing faster than a sailing ship and which was busy with quite a few other things around the world.
In any case, that 20% number may or may not be accurate; some sources put the percentage of Patriots at 40-45% but loyalists only at 15-20%
Patriot factionThe Patriots came from many different backgrounds. Among the most active of the Patriots group were highly educated and fairly wealthy individuals. However, without the support of the ordinary men and women, such as farmers, lawyers, mechanics, seamstresses, homemakers, shopkeepers, and ministers, the struggle for independence would have failed.
Quote:
In 2000 historian Robert Calhoon estimated that in the Thirteen Colonies between 40 and 45 percent of the white population supported the Patriots' cause:
Historians' best estimates put the proportion of adult white male loyalists somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. Approximately half the colonists of European ancestry tried to avoid involvement in the struggle — some of them deliberate pacifists, others recent emigrants, and many more simple apolitical folk. The patriots received active support from perhaps 40 to 45 percent of the white populace, and at most no more than a bare majority.[1]