Loyalists (also called <em>Tories, Royalists</em>, and <em>King's Men</em>) were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Empire during the American Revolutionary War. They opposed all radical change. Their opponents were the Patriots, who supported the American fight for independence.
Loyalist can be described as reactionaries. Reactionaries are people who want to return to a previous political state of society that they believe possessed positive characteristics that are absent in the current society. Loyalists refused to accept the possibility of America becoming independent, thinking that its position under the British rule was better than its independence. That's what made them reactionaries.
