The American Revolution - Research Paper Example

The America revolution The American revolution was a political turmoil that took place in the United s of America in 1776 in which colonies of North America joined together to end the British rule in America. The American Revolution marked new beginning in political thought especially the growth of new republican ideas which conflicted with traditional and English set of tenets. The American Revolution led to the growth of a new nation called the United States of America that was created as a result of the treaty of Paris of 1783 (Allison 30). In 1763, as an aftermath of the treaty leading to the end of French and Indian war, France lost its military might to the American colonies and all North American possessions located on the East side of the Mississippi River with the exclusion of two islands in Newfoundland. The colonies of America rejected the power of the parliament of Britain to govern them abroad without any form of representation and then barred all royal officials. By 1774 each colony in America had created a provincial congress to govern or rule itself but still constrained within the empire. The Great Britain instead of engaging in diplomacy, it responded sending its troops to re-establish and re-impose direct rule. As a reaction to the British response, the American colonies through second continental congress joined together to defend their self governance and manage against the armed conflict with the British rule. In addition, the States vowed that the British Empire via acts of anarchy had no power to claim their allegiance. Additionally, the American Revolution was as a consequence of series of intellectual, political and social transformations in ancient American society and government. The Americans were against the oligarchies that characterized European societies at that time instead calling for development of republicanism based on enlightenment comprehension of liberalism. The American Revolution was facilitated by a number of notions and events that merged and led to social and political separation of colonial possessions from home nation and combining those of former individual colonies to create an independent nation (Bilven 66-8). The American Revolution started in 1763 after the British military recorded a series of victories during the French and Indian war that led to an end of the French military might that was initially a threat to the British North American colonies. The colonial separation for England was the primary cause of the American Revolution evolved and rapidly grew as a smoldering flame of anger beginning with taxes imposed by Britain on thirteen colonies devoid of representation. This was necessitated by the Stamp Act of 1765. Britain enacted some policies that aimed to collect taxes from the American colonies. For instance, the Britons adopted the policy that directed all colonies under British rule to pay larger amount of costs linked with keeping them in the empire. Britain unfair practice of imposing direct taxes on American colonies in order to pay or defray its past European wars led in eventual separation form mother country. This was also followed by other policies that aimed to manifest British might, all which proved meaningless, unworthy and unpopular in America. The main reason why these ideas and policies were unpopular in America was that the colonies laced elected representatives in the ruling Britain parliament, thus leading many colonists consider the policies as a violation of human rights and illegitimate. In 1772, some colonists started to create communities which would be used for their own provincial congresses governance. Two years later, the provincial congresses in most colonies rejected the British parliament and hence effectively replaced the British ruling machines in former colonies. When the Britons reacted by sending troops to impose direct rule, the local representatives in these colonies started to mobilize and coordinate militias. The revolutionaries set up the second continental congress and established a continental army and in 1775, the war broke out. The Americans reacted by declaring their freedom as newly created nation known as the United States of America. They denied any allegiance to the British rule and claimed their own sovereignty. In 1777, the continental army captured a British army and made the French to join the war in support of the Americans. In 1778, the Dutch and Spain joined the war against the British as friends to the French. Throughout the entire war period, the British used their nautical supremacy to capture and seize coastal cities. On the other hand, the French also showed their determination and seriousness in the war by capturing Chesapeake which eventually led to the surrender of second British military in Yorktown. In 1783, the treaty of Paris was signed by United States and the British government which ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of Unites States (Countryman 61). The American enlightenment movement was behind the outbreak of the American Revolution. For instance, some of the ideas behind the enlightenment movement were the ideas of democracy, republicanism, religious tolerance and liberalism. The belief in these ideas by American colonists started to foster an intellectual atmosphere which in turn led to a new sense of social and political identity in America. The concepts of liberty influenced political reasoning behind the American Revolution whereby many American colonists believed in the natural rights of human beings in that people had the right to overthrow the underperforming government or leader should they betray their natural rights. More so, the Americans embraced republicanism ideology. In Britain, critics of the government argued that corruption was a bad reality in Britain. This made the Americans to fear that the vice of corruption was spreading from Britain to their land. Therefore they vowed to block corruption from crossing to the American society by being committed to the republican values and ideas as they Britain as hopelessly hostile and corrupt to the interests of the Americans. American colonists believed that British seemed to endanger the liberties established in America. Corruption posed a great threat to liberty in Britain and in America. It was linked with luxury and inherited aristocracy they firmly condemned. The great awaking also contributed to the American revolution in the sense that evangelism of the day preached sermons to the public that aimed to condemn the traditional ideas of natural hierarchy by teaching that the bible said that all men are equal, thus, the real and true value of a man lies in his moral actions but not his social class. Ideas such as belief in God as natural giver of human rights, and shared belief about sin and divine providence worked jointly to unite the evangelicals and rationalists and therefore motivated the American defiance of the British Empire (Bailyn 51-3). The American Revolution was precipitated by enactment of controversial legislations by the British government. These pieces of policies were seen by Americans as illegitimate acts of a government that has no authority to enact and pass policies on Englishmen in the Americas who lacked elected representatives in that government. The British parliament believed that these policies were necessary for its colonies. The British Empire functioned under the mercantile system where all trade activities were restricted and done within the empire and trades with other governments were forbidden. The main aim was to enrich Britain and its subjects. Due to this, the Americans resisted the mercantilist laws. For instance, legislations such as Townshend and Tea Acts of 1767 to 1773 were aimed at enriching the British government. For example, the Townshend Act imposed a tax on essential goods including tea, paper and glass. The Americans were angered by the increase in the taxes which made them to organize for a boycott of British goods. This Act incited the Americans to resist the British rule. In addition, the adoption of intolerable Acts such as Quebec Act further made the relationship between America and Britain to worsen. It is of great significance to note that the American Revolution was caused by the new taxes and boycotts in the sense that as British government looked for ways on how to make funds, it was decided to impose taxes on the North American colonies with the objective of settling some of the cost for British defense. For instance, the Sugar Act imposed a tax of three pence on a single gallon on molasses as well as decided particular goods which could be exported to Britain. This Act affected the colonies during economic crisis or downtown. As a result, it led to outcries from American who claimed taxation without representation because they had no representatives in the British parliament. The economic scenario in America was further weakened by enactment of Currency Act which barred the colonies from printing currencies (Wood 87). This damaged American businesses as they were unable to make or generate any form of liquid money. Frustrated and angered by these laws, the Americans started to systematically boycott British products. The American colonists used various committees of correspondence to discus s the nature of British policies. During their meetings, some argued that there was a need to create a new governmental system while others opted for reconciliation with the Britons. At the end, the congress decided that they would boycott all British goods with effect from 1774 and if the policies were not repealed. More so, the colonists returned for a second continental congress where they drafted strategies on how they would mobilize their militias and face the British military. The values and ideals adopted by American colonists established much needed paradigm shift to fight colonialism in America. For instance, they condemned writs of assistance provided by British customs officials in that they opposed the whisking of ships and warehouses which was seen as a violation of human rights. In addition, the treaty of Paris signed in 1783 granted independence to America. The United States was granted the territory East of Mississippi River between Florida and Canada (Wood 98). In addition, the colonists were so radical in that they could not allow the Britons to collect taxes from Americans. The American Revolution also saw more human rights exercised in the sense that more people were given opportunity to vote since the revolution was incited by democratic ideals. More so, the U.S constitution was written to avert the ineffective or inappropriate articles of the confederation whereby the bill of rights promised against infringements exercised by England which angered the Americans. Through the American Revolution, the American colonists demonstrated power of unity and resilience which enabled them to oust the British Empire that had dominated them for a long time and gave birth to a new nation called the United States of America as an independent country. In sum, the spirit of American revolution have rippled for a long time for spirit and character of an American, the leadership adopted to condemn violation of human rights and formation of democratic government. Works Cited Allison, Robert. The American Revolution: A Concise History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print. Bilven, Bruce. The American Revolution. New York: Random House, 1981. Print. Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. New York: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992. Print. Countryman, Edward. The American Revolution: Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Hill and Wang, 2003. Print. Wood, Gordon. The American Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2003. Print. Read More