They felt that the king was abusing his power as a monarch and therefore their rebellion was for a just cause of declaring the independence they wanted. The American Revolution created a new politically independent nation that could make its own decisions and was free of economic limiting statutes. The Revolution called for social change, but little change was initiated during this period. These political, social, and economic ideals helped design the framework of our democratic nation. Socially, the American Revolution only slightly changed America.
The American Revolution did not satisfy the colonial goals for civil, political, social, and economic rights; however the Constitution did. All the American Revolution did was drive the British out of America. With the British gone the Americans had the ability to strive for civil, political, social, and economic rights, but the Articles of Confederation became an obstacle in their path to their rightful goals. During the American Revolution the American people wrote a lot about what they wanted to accomplish and attain. In Document A, the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, it is written that the American people feel they have been wronged by England because their rights are restricted and wish for these basic rights to happiness and such.
Both the American Revolution and French Revolution were started in order to fight against their respective political leaders in order to end monarchial rule and start republican governments. The need to set up a stable and balanced government that protected the natural rights of its citizens was the basis of these wars. Following the end of the American Revolution and the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Americans wrote the modern Constitution of the United States, heavily based off of Montesquieu’s idea of a divided government. The French Revolution began similarly in that some members of its government believed that they were not equally represented. After the French Revolution though, the republic slowly began shifting to a totalitarian regime, first under the Committee of Public Safety and then completely under Napoleon Bonaparte .The facts show that the American Revolution was more successful in establishing a stable and long-lasting republican government that started a precedent for Europe, while the French Revolution’s republic failed to last, being turned into a totalitarian regime.
America is a very strong and determined country, which help them win the Revolutionary War. Washington’s strategy of avoiding large-scale with the royal army made it impossible for the British to deliver a knock-out blow. Only once during the Revolution did an American army surrender to British forces. Also, the guerrilla tactics that Americans had learned during Indian wars proved very effective in fighting the British army. Another reason that helped the U.S. win the Revolutionary War was the intervention of France, Spain, and the Netherlands in the conflict made a crucial difference.
Although historians generally regard the Articles of Confederation as a complete failure, they were actually a necessary step in the formation of the Constitution which laid out a balanced government in accordance with the ideals of the American Revolution. Adopted by the Second Continental Congress at the height of the Revolution in 1777, the Articles of Confederation reflected the fears of American citizens, in particular, the fear of tyrannical rule. When the Articles failed, a stronger and more stable government replaced it, the government America has today, defined by the Constitution. Errors made under the weak Articles of Confederation were the catalyst for the ratification of the Constitution. The Articles played an important role by proving a strong central government was not to be feared, it was a necessity.
Both federalists believed the new Constitution would help with providing protection, the general welfare of the people and enforcing the laws. (Doc 1 & 3) Two men, Patrick Henry and Amos Singletree, were both antifederalist and opposed the Constitution. Patrick opposed the Constitution because he believed the states would lose power. He thought it was too late to try to fix something that separated America from Great Britain. Amos Singletree believed the men who drafted the constitution are using it as an excuse to gain more power and money for themselves.
Faction, a problem could not avoid in American society because of the vast different opinions. In favor of republican, James Madison emphasized that the strong Constitution has the control to deal with violence and aggression caused by faction which those in favor of democracy could not because of its instability government. Furthermore, in the federalist no.51 he stated that the Constitution’s separation of power also helps mitigate the problem of factionalism. Believing in pluralist theory that power is relatively broadly distributed among many more or less organized interest groups in society, and the fear of majoritarian rule, James Madison one more time convinced that the Constitution will mitigate the problem of factionalism by diving
Without a strong central government, democracy was impossible thus America was propelling towards the gallows of failure. Roche asserts that only a functional governing body could effectively protect the earnestly fought for freedoms of the United States. ”When the Constitutionalists went forth to subvert the Confederation,
Martin Luther King once stated in his book, “Stride Toward Freedom”, “Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people”. In his mind he was certain we wouldn’t get anywhere with violence. “The whites were colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation” (Digital History, Malcolm X). In this quote Malcolm X expresses how he was aware of why the American Revolution was fought.
The American Revolution is one of the most important and talked about events in American history. Sometimes, all people really know is that there was a war in which the new Americans fought against the British in order to gain independence, and the fact that the Americans won. Some details, however, are left out, such as feelings of those involved with the struggle and how the British government viewed the conflict. These details, ideas, and issues are vital to American History and should be told so that American citizens today know how the United States were formed. Many individuals involved with the struggle had different feelings and ideas.