I post this mainly because it is challenges a fundamental belief of Americans. I don't necessarily agree, but it is an interesting thought experiment. The article lists three reasons, and the first two relate to treatment of non-white people. As a white American I enjoy a great standard of living, and I don't want to give that up. But my way of life was achieved through the exploitation of others. I do wonder what another path would have led to.
The last point is about our style of government, and I agree completely. I would love to change to a more parliamentarian form of government.
Who knows how American and the world would be different if the American revolution hadn't happened or been won by the British. History is too complicated to simplify as much as this article does, but it's an interesting thing to think about.
Just because the British Empire ended slavery doesn't mean they weren't exploiting people for economic gain- they were and continued to do so for nearly another century. The worst abuses in colonial India happened after the abolition of the slave trade.
Would Americans let Britian abolish slavery anyway? The slave states revolted against even the idea of abolition in reality, and that wasn't being imposed by an imperial power across the sea.
I also find it hard to believe that native Americans would have been treated any better. The US was going to expand westwards regardless. The Louisiana purchase might not have happened, but we would probably have gotten that territory anyway after Napoleons defeat. Losing the revolution wouldn't make us any less likely to exploit the West.