The colonists start out as this small country that no one took seriously. When King George had came to the colonies, they were shown to be weak and let people walk all over them. This is when the british (aka the red coats) took over and passed acts taxing them to pay for the BRITISH side of the wars. After this is when the Americans wanted to try to take back what was rightfully theirs.
Along comes the american revolution, when their were loyalists who were known as Americans who stayed true to britain. How they shifted to a change in the identity of the colonist's was when they won the war. The US had proven they were more then just a tiny new colony and that they would fight for what they wanted.
