American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the events and ideas that resulted in the separation of thirteen North American colonies from Great Britain and their transformation into the United States of America. The revolution included the direct military struggles known as the American Revolutionary War. The War itself is started with the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense (front page)

Table of contents

1 Introduction
2 Origins
3 Immediate causes
4 The Revolution
5 See Also
6 Further reading

Introduction

The broader sense of revolution began much earlier, continued after the peace treaty, and had a much greater impact on the human experience than simply colonial independence. The process created a new view of government and its organization that the world hadn't seen before. The terms republic and democracy had been used in histories of ancient Greece and Rome, but now they were implemented in a government whose authority was based on individual rights rather than on church or king. While earlier historic trends affected it, the revolution itself had its active roots in the Albany Congress of 1754 and ended when George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States April 30, 1789.

Before the revolution most people in the British North American Colonies considered themselves loyal subjects of the British Crown, with the same rights and obligations as people in Britain. After the revolution, they had created a newly independent republic.

Origins

There are four major historic trends in Europe and America during the eighteenth century that affected or gave impetus to the Revolution. The Enlightenment changed the intellectual basis of thought, the Great Awakening changed the emotional and religious approach to life, the European Dynastic Wars altered the view of nations and their relations to each other, while growing economic changes affected everyday life.

The Enlightenment elevated natural philosophy and began to replace arguments born of tradition and authority with those based on observation and independent reasoning. The implications of the earlier Scientific Revolution began to have a greater impact on everyday life and in the conscious thought of men everywhere. Increased publication and communications between like-minded people opened new areas to question and consideration. The early works of thinkers like John Locke became the analysis of men like Montesquieu.

The Great Awakening was the American extension to the earlier religious revivals in Europe. It called into question the wisdom of an established church. The revival placed emphasis on individual conscience and experience as the source of value in religious experience. It started or increased the presence of Baptist views throughout the colonies. It was also the first event that swept through all the British colonies, from New England to the Carolinas, as a common experience.

European Dynastic Wars, as experienced in the French and Indian Wars, raised several important ideas among the North American colonist. One of these was the importance of self-reliance for their own defense, and a recognition that the European military establishments were less effective when applied on a continental scale. The Albany Congress taught them the value of cooperation between otherwise divergent colonies. Armies and techniques that might protect Great Britain, France, or the Netherlands could not be extended over thinly populated North America. Another result was a rising sense of frustration, when victories earned in part by their blood and wealth were negotiated away for a gain in Asia or the Caribbean.

Economic Changes gave further impetus to the recognition that the welfare of the colony and that of the mother country were not always synonymous. The early Navigation Acts aimed at the system as a whole, were giving way to the Mercantile System that sought to alter trade balances to accumulate bullion and coinage within Great Britain. Just as in warfare, the British idea of limited resources with land ownership as a critical resource didn't apply to America, where labor and intelligence were the limiting factors. The monetary systems, starting with the pound sterling, coupled with an increasing rate of invention, saw the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and its changes to productivity. The system in place sought to concentrate these advantages in England, and treated the colonies as source of raw materials.

Immediate causes

Besides the general trends, there were several events that caused an increase in the sense of separation from English interests. The Treaty of Paris, the Proclamation of 1763 at the end of the French and Indian War cut into American aspirations. This was heightened by the Intolerable Acts of 1774.

The Revolution

A vicious circle began as Colonists acted against what they saw as unfair policies, drew a harsh British reaction, followed by stronger Colonial reaction, leading to even harsher British reaction -- all of this spiraling into the revolution.

As the Colonists started rejecting the Crown they also started becoming more radicalized in other ways, paying more attention to the idea of a broad democracy, and people like Thomas Paine who not long before this would have been condemned as a Leveller. Thomas Paine, produced a pamphlet entitled Common Sense arguing that the only solution to the problems with Britain would be Independence.