What is the difference between a revolution and a war for independence?

The difference between a Revolution and War for Independence.

When every single geopolitical map is filled with violent conflict and social struggle, the clarity between a revolution and a war for independence becomes distorted. The bloodshed and terrorism started with the last generation, and as generation X is rapidly becoming the power in the world scene, the question is: Will the next generation consider itself fortunate or unfortunate to follow in our wake? In a day and age when the usual headlines of the morning newspapers cry out about massacres over there, genocide over here, terrorism down there, and political bloodshed up here, it desensitizes and to the majority of individuals a revolution and a war for independence are synonymous, yet they are starkly differing.

If asked what the difference between a revolution and a war for independence is, the average adult would become confused, yet one overriding factor that would be expressed is a negative association with those terms.

Benjamin Franklin 1767

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This is not so much because of ignorance but because throughout history there were but few healthy political upheavals. In the following I will attempt to discern between the two.

It can be summed up in one fundamentally distinct characteristic: political agenda. Who are the leaders of the political upheaval and what is their agenda? During the American War for Independence our great forefathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Patrick, and Benjamin Franklin were the leaders. Before there was any physical conflict, they had implored the ruling monarch of England repeatedly to treat them fairly and they would gladly remain his subjects, yet their cries fell upon deaf ears. Even after the first physical hostilities, the colonists still continued to plead with the monarch to reason with them. After all their attempts failed, the leadership convened and methodically...