The American War of Independence has been characterized as a revolution, both politically and in terms of the fighting methods employed by the insurgent colonist - the freewheeling colonial upstarts against the rigid British military establishment. Daniel Marston argues that this belief, though widespread, is a misconception and that the American War of Independence was, in reality, a war between two groups of British veterans of the Seven Years' War who had previously fought as allies. The subsequent peace treaty in 1783 marked the formal beginning of the United States of America as an independent political entity.