DBQ Essay: How Revolutionary Was The American Revolution?

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DBQ essay: how the revolutionary was the American Revolution? What made the American Revolution so revolutionary, however, was that it did not involve regime change, but the creation of an entirely new nation and the adoption of a democracy by that nation. That said… the seeds of democracy had already been planted in the colonies before the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolution in 1783. Many historians cite the Massachusetts Bay colony, officially chartered in 1630 [source: Bancroft]. This was a radical move within the West, which was still largely ruled by monarchies. For the most part, however, colonies were governed absolutely at the pleasure of the English king. This changed during the Revolutionary War. After the colonies broke away from England in 1776 and the war began to become newly self-governed states. The American Revolution was not a complete social revolution. The American Revolution did not produce a total upheaval of the previously existing social and institutional structures. It also did not replace the old powers of authority with a new social group or class. Never the less, for most American colonists fighting for independence, the American Revolution represented fundamental social change in…show more content…
Wood argues that the American revolutionaries’ dedication to making equality one of the most important bedrocks of society was “the single most powerful and radical ideological force in all of American history.” The Revolution’s ideals of equality and freedom may not have included all segments of society at the nation’s inception; however, these Enlightenment principles planted a seed of reform that would continue to grow over the course of America’s
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