Why did America remove the U from color?

America removed U from colour to make color due to Noah Webster's spelling reforms in early 19th century aimed at simplifying English and creating distinct American identity separate from British English. Noah Webster, who published first American dictionary in 1828, believed English spelling should be more phonetic and logical, and wanted to remove unnecessary letters that did not affect pronunciation, such as U in colour, honour, flavour, and also changed -re to -er in centre to center, and -ise to -ize in realise to realize. His reforms were partly political, after American Revolution, Americans wanted cultural independence from Britain, and simplified spelling was way to show American English distinct. Webster argued that colour's U was from French influence and not needed, as Latin color had no U. He also wanted to make learning to read easier for Americans. His dictionary popularized color spelling, and American schools adopted it. Over time, color became standard in US, while colour remained standard in UK and Commonwealth including India where British English is taught. The same happened with gray vs grey, Americans prefer gray with a, though Webster did not directly change that. So America removed U to simplify, Americanize, and rationalize spelling, driven by Webster's nationalist and educational goals, not because pronunciation changed, as color and colour are pronounced identically.