What's more, although Texas gets all the attention, Robert Jordan's home state, South Carolina, was the cradle of the notion that the smaller components of a country can tell the overall government to go f*** themselves. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the USA in 1860, and they had several times threatened to leave prior to that in response to taxes on imports (like Elayne plans to impose on the Sea Folk who seek to bring goods inland from their enclave) and which were imposed in order to protect industries in other parts of the country (in the USA, it was northern manufacturers, which did not benefit SC at all - meanwhile, we have that quote from tSR where Elayne is recalling that her mother taught her which crafts she had to "protect". Any sane economist or historian could tell the Trakands that in a pre-industrial tech level THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a craft that needs protection! ).

Anyway, the issue regarding the Two Rivers vis a vis Andor is highly analogous to that of the American colonies vs. England. England left them alone to govern their own affairs for a while (known as statutory neglect), and then, when they had begun building up into a sizable economy that was more profitable to exploit, and England was able to acquire a lot more land adjacent to them in the Seven Years War, they decided they should start telling the colonies how to manage their affairs. Despite holding their loyalties to the king even as they deplored the illegal actions his government took against them, the colonies finally fought back in defense of their natural rights, upon which the British were infringing. The Two Rivers have managed their own affairs, seen to their own defense, and have received no benefits from Andor, nor acknowledged its rule. By all the principles of natural law, "they are and of right out to be (a) free and independent state..." Elayne has the same moral right to rule the Two Rivers that an armed robber has to the goods in your house.