Analysis of the Uprising of the Colonies - Essay Example

Padmajah Badri Email, padmajah@gmail.com Citation Style, MLA March 16, 2009 Discuss the evolutionary process leading the colonies to the point of rebellion using specific examples of British policies and Colonial response. British colonies were gaining more power by the end of 17th century leading to the origin of colonial government like royal, proprietary and corporate. There was a drastic change in eighteenth century as the corporate and proprietary colonies were transformed in to royal colonies imposing more restrictions on colonies like Sugar Acts of 1733 and 1764 and Iron Act of 1750.There was a steep increase in colonial trade in 1764 with a revenue of 2 million for Great Britain and this helped in managing the cost of governing the colonies which heaped up to 350,000 a year to some extent .War debt scaled up to 130 million and landowners in Britain agitated to pay more tax and there was a clear apathy in paying for colonial wars. This has lead to the emergence of Proclamation Act of 1763 restricting the French to exert control only on western lands. One of the critical revenue strategy adopted by Britain is the Sugar Act of 1764.This act imposed tax on molasses, an essential component for making rum and the pricing was 6 pence a pound. Later the Sugar act was reformed and tax was slashed to 3 pence a pound with new customs service .There was huge resistance in paying tax and towards the end of 1766, the tax was reduced to a penny for a barrel. Stamp Act of 1765 was another policy reformation declaring tax on that legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards, and hand bills. A stamp is affixed to confirm the tax payment. Colonies revolted against Stamp Act and threatened to boycott British goods. The British parliament revoked the stamp act in 1766 due to colonial pressure yet reinstating parliamentary supremacy by passing the declaratory act. There were duties imposed on paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea imported into the colonies leading to colonial boycotts hampering the trade by 50%. Boston Massacre in 1770 was a reactive outburst of tension developed between British soldiers and the local crowd. The crowd was throwing snowballs at British soldiers and panicky soldiers killed 5 people. Boston Massacre paved way for the emergence of committees for correspondence .These committees gained more momentum by destroying the British colonial assets like ships. Monopoly on tea was granted in 1773 by parliament as a resource plan to rescue the East India Company from financial crisis. This act enabled East India Company to handle both the shipping and the sale of its tea, thereby decreasing the price of tea. This created havoc in colonies and they boycotted tea to express their revolt. Angered by the colonial revolts, Britain government introduced Coercive Acts, in 1774 closing Boston port, transferring the colonial trials to other colonies or Britain and enabling the soldiers to reside in private homes and finally revoking the self government in Massachusetts. Britain aimed at isolation of colonies by introducing Coercive Acts but on the contrary the act united the colonies to a greater extent leading to formation of First Continental congress boycotting English goods. The year 1775 and 1776 witnessed clear outburst of colonies towards British Colonial policies leading to death of nearly 73 Britain Warriors. Thus the above cited incidences paved for the revolt process with greater degree of resistance and colonies evolved as a battalion to combat against the British colonial policy and they succeeded in their mission after the war of American Independence leading to liberalization of colonies. Bibliography Gipson, Lawrence Henry. The British Empire before the American Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1939-1970. Essay 2 Fundamental change with regard to the colonists, slaves, Native Americans and women after American Revolution. . The American Revolution brought a series of changes in colonial rule and had a drastic impact not only political but also on all sections of the society including colonists, slaves, Native Americans and women. Immediate change was visible in the economic setup as there was change on domestic and foreign currency. Colonists were urged to form their own government yet there was a challenge in implementation of the same as the British destroyed the original political communities. Colonists adopted a new political dimension framing constitutions, social contracts to substantiate legal form of governance. Legislation was equipped with power because of direct representation of democratic form of government. Emergence of participative form of government is another advantage of Colonial Independence. The state governments were given liberty to choose their own governor like Connecticut and freedom to vote for all sections of the society was granted. A new form legislature, unicameral legislature came in to existence which divided the society in to upper class and lower class but insisted the participation of both the class in governance. This instilled a feeling of unity and fraternity among the colonists. Council of censors was promoted and elected for 7 years term and this replaced the executive cadre pre independence. Council of censors was an executive centralized authority to veto any legislative bills. Another fundamental change is the involvement of locals in governance replacing the elite class. There was a belief that natives are not the right choice for participative management but in reality, natives possessed every single trait to conduct fair governance. Major reason is the similar economic background of natives and the people exercising the vote. People largely relied and satisfied with the legislative management forms as spokesperson and true representative catering to their needs. Slavery has taken a new form after revolution. Many black slaves were offered freedom with a conditional clause to serve British armies and some slaves accepted to do the same. Some of the slaves joined the colonist's army and they have any regard to which battalion they belong to as they were instilled with a sense of autonomy. The Slaves felt honored when asked to join for a revolutionary battle and they began to regard themselves as men of virtue and true citizens. Slaves were even determined to sacrifice their lives to substantiate their hold as a true citizen. Post war, the sacrifices and sufferings of the slaves are acknowledged and there was a sudden change which aroused abolishing the slavery practice. In England, there were gradual changes in abolishing slavery which transcended to other colonies and slaves were granted freedom instantly. Emergence of free independent black community came in to reality in England, middle colonies. Women, in particular gained more momentum after the American Revolution. Women were also involved in agitation by refusing to buy British domestic wares. During the war, women suffered great heights of atrocity when the soldiers of Washington took over their farms and they strive to provide adequate clothing and food to their husbands and relatives during the war. The sufferings created a phenomenal change in women's approach and priorities. Women regarded themselves as individuals with a republican motherhood providing a new dimension to the concept of republicanism .Women started to learn and become educated and were skilled enough to write political newsletters and discuss the latest political trends with their families. They played an important role in teaching their children about American Revolution and concept of liberty and virtue. In a nut shell, American Revolution caused irrevocable change in all sections of the society and the revolutionary form has a paved way for a sudden radical and permanent change as stated by Webster. Colonies are no more dependent on British and they started functioning independently with more self reliance and vigor to survive. Bibliography 1. Sugrue, Michael. Lecture 18, From Protest to Revolution. The Teaching Company Limited Partnership, 1998 2. Sugrue, Michael. Lecture 20, The Meaning of Revolution. The Teaching Company Limited Partnership, 1998. Essay 3 Necessity of Constitutional Convention Constitutional convention is necessary as it refers to people based concept with a formation of consented government. Constitutional convention supports political democracy and legislature and aims at protecting minority rights and liberty against any one, even the politicians elected by democratic process. Constitutional convention is absolutely necessary to reiterate the fundamental institution and structure of balancing all the sections of the society instilled with order and liberty of the individual. The apportionment of power was practiced in reality focusing on the concepts of authority and power among the legislative and judicial form of government. Formal of local self governments brought a radical change in social setup and structure of Federal government was modified in order to balance the local and national requirements. Leadership qualities proved more critical to achieve nationalist goals and to the feudal class as well. There was a combined government which served partly as national and partly as federal.The above reasons validates the necessity of constitutional convention. Success of Articles of Confederation. Articles of Confederation is the first constitution and testimony for colonial governance approved by all the 13 states providing a loose confederation specifically for states and minimizing the level of authority for the central government. Articles of confederation had both success and failures and also introduced some provisions to combat against the worst failures. Major Success of Articles of confederation is that it evolved as a tool for process of designing constitution for the existing government.Some of the success instances includes land of ordinance of 1785, The North west ordinance. Land Ordinance of 1785 emphasized on the disownment of claims by states to western lands. This helped in the transformation of western land to emerge as an efficient, organized township and introduced the practice of surveying townships. This reduced haphazard situations and conflicts.The Northwest Ordinance is another success strategy providing a new governance method for western territories as states and initiates the laws enforced by the governor of the territory. If the population is greater than 5000, then the government is chosen by electoral mandate. If the population is greater than 60,000 then the location is declared as state with effective documental approval by constitution. The North West ordinance paved way for local self government formation by states for improvement and welfare of the people. Articles of Confederation is acting as a stepping stone to design the present constitution for various processes like postal service initiation and debts and credit policies and any coalition treaties. Articles of Confederation proved a inevitable landmark for governance inspired of certain failures. Failures of Articles of Confederation. Articles of Confederation provided a serious gap in instances like role of executive and enactment of laws, lack of necessary resources like army, navy, judiciary, currency, improper trade regulation, lack of proper method to collect taxation. This also paved way for lack of enforcement of any cordial foreign policy as well. One of the critical weaknesses is the absence of standing army and individuals suffered certain losses due to the same. A critical situation of prevention of bank fore closures on Massachusetts farms was handled effectively by Daniel Shays taking support from a group of farmers as there is no standing army.This enlightens the weak governance and poor management creating citizens to lose confidence in the government. After the Shays revolt, there was evolution of standing army and foreign policy formulation. Provisions to address the failures In order to address the failures of Articles of Confederation, there was a Constitutional convention meet on 1987 including delegates from states and reforming the constitution. The modified provisions influenced a democratic form of government exercising more rights and power of authority for the state. Evolution of strong central government with a democratic electoral process is a result of corrective action of failures of Articles of Confederation. Bibliography http://www.conservapedia.com/Articles_of_Confederation Feinburg, Barbara. Articles of Confederation. ,Twenty First Century Books@ 2002. Read More