How Revolutionary was the American Revolution The American revolution was during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from British rule, combining to become the United States of America. The American Revolution had momentous consequences. Though the question is, how revolutionary was the American Revolution? Furthermore, was it a huge turn or just partial, to the shaping of the United States or the impacts it has had to this day? The American Revolution has caused changes, in such as political independence, social equality, land reform, and economics.
Although Zinn argues that the conflicts caused by the differentiating social classes in order to dissolve the class divisions was the main cause of the American Revolution, the “other side of the story” is told by Schweikart and Allen, as they reason that it was actually the British who unknowingly burdened the colonies with oppression, which brought about the revolution itself. In Zinn’s fourth chapter of A People’s History of the United States, Tyranny is Tranny; he focuses more on the class differences in society that triggers the opposition against England, rather than the effects of British oppression. He states that the “American leadership was less in need of English rule, and the English more in need of the colonists’ wealth” (Zinn 60). With this said, the colonists then focused more on the pursuit of exploitation and profit, which would definitely spark rebellions of the poor against the rich especially because the poor had been overwhelmed by British taxes and the fact that only a small percentage of the wealthy controlled a huge majority of the city’s taxable assets. For this reason, the poor developed a hatred for the upper class that would
In their drive for power the ministers upset the balance of the British constitution. Royal officials in the colonies of America aided in this English conspiracy as they attempted to seize as much power as they could. Bailyn argued that the American Revolution was actually a radical "ideological" revolution that took place in men's minds. Before the Revolution, colonials saw the divergences from the European norms--lack of a titled aristocracy, an
The American Revolution 1774-1783. Osprey Publishing: Great Britain, 2002. Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005.
John Locke is one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers of the seventeenth century. His philosophical writings of individual rights and role of government to secure these rights were a major influence on the founding fathers of the United States of America. The founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison used many of the tenets of John Locke's philosophy to construct the American political ideology of liberal democracy. John Locke's view of what a civil society and popular sovereignty inspired the founding fathers and the colonists to develop a political and social discourse which fueled the American Revolution. Locke's influence can be seen in documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.
By contrast, the American colonists rebelled mainly against British rule. After the revolution, they established laws that protected individual rights balanced with representative national and state governments. The American Revolution was the first of a series of wars for independence that shared some common beliefs. Shared ideas included an emphasis on individual rights and the idea that a government’s power comes from the
University of Phoenix Material Causes and Outcomes of the Revolution Part 1: Causes Complete the grid by describing each pre-war event and explaining how it contributed to the Revolutionary War. |Pre-War Event |Description |Contribution to the Revolutionary War | | |This was the war Great Britain and France that was fought here in America in |Because the removal of the French threat to American colonies was eliminated and this kept| |French and Indian War|1754-1763. |settlers loyal to Britain. The British wanted to tax new colonist and this lead to | | |
In the 1700s, Europeans saw numerous opportunities in the New World. They envisioned the colonization as a chance for them to live a free and prosperous life, but, in reality, the American colonists faced many setbacks. The tension between Great Britain and the New England colonies led to American Revolution. In Transcript of Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson acknowledged how the act of force was a rational option in order to obtain liberty from Great Britain; however, in The Rise and Fall of the Newburgh Conspiracy, George Marshall depicted how there is a more reasonable alternative to resolving problems within the new independent country. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson explained how governments should not be overthrown for petty reasons, but he believed the King of Great Britain had taken the situation too far.
The initial growth of the US government stemmed largely from the American Revolution in 1775 when the United States was competing with Britain for the expansion of this territory. Directly following the revolution arose the Constitution, which quickly established a governing policy over the indigenous residents. In the third clause of Article 1, Section 8, we saw the Indian Commerce Clause, which ensured that Indian tribes must be subject to federal policy under the Constitution. These policies pushed some groups out of their original settlements, while around the same time, another movement was occurring
The American Revolution began with a series of events starting in 1763 and eventually shaped the future of what would become the United States of America. These events were gradual, however as they compounded they eventually began encroaching upon the freedom that the colonists valued. A Chronological look at these events, and how they affected the economic, social, and political freedoms of the colonists, gives a clear picture of the reasons that lead to the American Revolutionary War and ultimately shaped the future of American culture. During the early colonization of America, colonists relied heavily on trade, with the goal achieving a self sustaining economy through Mercantilism. However, the many taxes passed by the British Parliament hindered their progress, upsetting the colonists.