Did the French win the American Revolution?

The problem with this theory is that the rebels did not enjoy anywhere near 100% support of the population. The vast majority were indifferent - of the rest, the rebels only slightly outnumbered the Loyalists. The majority decided not to oppose the rebels because they didn't want to be subjected to the terror tactics (lynchings, hangings, tar and feathering etc) that the rebels used against those suspected of being Loyalist sympathizers, but other than that, they probably couldn't have cared less who won. They just wanted to be safe during the conflict. If things got too bloody, the terror tactics of the rebels would have been a less risky proposition than the ongoing war - so the support of the majority would swing back to the British.

It's not like the loss of the US is what ended the British Empire ...

Nor would retaining it secure the British Empire. Canada and Australia broke away, and it wasn't because Britain didn't have the power to force them to remain. It was because they made better allies than colonies. I imagine the same would have been true of the US, and probably much earlier.

Originally posted by Challenger2 Sorry to disappoint you, but Britain still ruled Canada and Australia until 1982 and 1986 respectively. We just got so good at it you never noticed!

No it didn't. The Balfour Resolution, passed at the 1926 Imperial Conference, removed the primacy of the UK within the Commonwealth: the membership, including the UK, became "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".

The Statute of Westminster (1931) further clarified the concept: "No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the commencement of this Act shall extend or be deemed to extend, to a Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless it is expressly declared in that Act that that Dominion has requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof."

In fact, because of certain provisions in Westminster, Britain had to seek the consent of the Dominion Parliaments to allow King Edward VIII to abdicate in '36. And if they want to make any other changes to the monarchy, Britain has to get permission from our Parliament first.

1982 was just patriation of the Constitution, since the original was an act of British Parliament, at the request of the Canadian Parliament. Before that there was no British rule, since (as the Statute spells out) it was illegal for the British Parliament to pass any law regarding Canada without being requested to do so by the Canadian Parliament. If that qualifies as rule, then today Canada rules Britain, since the UK must get our permission to make any changes to the monarchy (and unlike British Parliament in the case of patriation, we can deny permission!)

It's true that dominion status might at some point have been given to the colonies, possibly incorporating Canada too.