I’m working on a paper for school and came across a topic that I’m having a hard time comprehending. I understand that during the American Revolution, there was tons of conflict within the colonies and between the different classes. How did they end up fighting the British together? Especially when the outcome was only supposed to benefit the American elite?
I think perhaps you've started with the wrong preconceptions about the colonists, some of it perhaps from Howard Zinn. Yes, there were elites in power running the American effort . But it was, still, very much a popular uprising, especially in Massachusetts, which reacted most violently to the taxes imposed by England. And there was a similar popular reaction across the colonies to the attempted English military suppression of Massachusetts. Yes, there were plenty of people who wanted to keep out of the conflict, or fought for a short time because they expected for it to be finished soon, especially in the early days, or wanted to stay on their farms and have the young unemployed single men do all the fighting. There were a significant number of Loyalists, as well. But whatever conflict there was between classes pretty much submerged during the fight. It would emerge briefly, during the Articles of Confederation period, when there was something of a class conflict over the payment of war debts, resulting in Shay's Rebellion and a flurry of excitement by the elites over whether there would be mob rule. But the Radicals became pretty much just another political faction. The mob did not take over. Very much a disappointment to Howard Zinn, but there it is.
Also, though it is far too simple to say that the colonists were fighting for liberty, it's quite wrong to say they had nothing to gain. They had very specific grievances with the English government over taxes and authority that they wanted addressed, and very strong expectations of being able to do better on their own. And they had great expectations of being able to move into the lands beyond the Alleghenies that had been denied to them after the Seven Years war, with the Proclamation of 1767. Land was money, in this period: and so that alone gave them very much to gain. On the other hand, the English had little to gain in pursuing the conflict. The North Atlantic colonies were not very important to the British economy ( if the Caribbean colonies had tried to secede, there would have been a far longer fight) and there were a number of voices in the English government who sought to end the war- they were engaged in and had been engaged in quite a few, and had good reason to cut their losses.