American Revolution Research Paper

In order for something to be classified as a revolution, a complete social, political and economic change needs to take place that destroys the foundation of the old control and transforms the society completely. A revolution needs to remove all old control and replace the power to a new social group, while still maintaining control over the situation. A rebellion is a violent resistance in order to carry a message to a higher power. A civil war is fought between the citizens of the same country over a specific conflict. The American Revolution freed the people from the British rule, removed the colonist’s from the monarchial government, and allowed the people of America to be free of Britain’s mercantilist control. However, it cannot be
considered a revolution due to the limited change to the foundation of America, as well as the lack of strength and organization America struggled to exhibit, especially after the “revolution”. The American Revolution often times is misunderstood in light of the perception that everyone after the war greatly benefitted from the freedom the Americans had won. The truth is that it only benefitted a small minority of the people in America; rich white men. When the Declaration of Independence was written, it stressed the issue of the men of the colonies losing their natural and unalienable rights. This may have been true, however, these men who were losing their rights were not the general population of the colonies, but the white men. In fact, many of the colonists in America did not want to fight to support the cause but reluctantly were forced to join the war, by law (Zinn 79). Not only were the majority of the people living in America reluctant to the idea of war, many of them did not even benefit from the “revolution”. Specifically the societal positions of women, Native Americans, and Africans were left generally unchanged, and were even ignored by the declaration, which supposedly was created for the rights of all men (Zinn 86). The declaration was not created to try and balance the equalities between people; it was created to ensure the upper class men were receiving the rights they have been given since birth. These young white men of the colonies enforced the war, and were the only ones who benefitted as well, leaving the social class system the same as it was before the war (McCullough 21). A revolution needs to completely change the social structure from the old control, not just for the upper class men. In order for the American “Revolution” to be considered revolutionary, the social class system would have had to change not only to benefit one minority group, but a majority of the population. After the American “Revolution” the colonists were free of Britain’s control, as well as British’s mercantilist control, which limited the Americans from trade with any other country but Britain.
Peace may have ended the war, but it only sparked a beginning to economic struggles in America. The new nation suffered with an immense amount of debts taken on by the states in order to fund the war efforts, heavy taxation and a crippling economy (Hunter 260). Although they were not limited on their routes to trade, America’s economy was suffering deeply, and was not offered support from other countries because they could not have credit without funds. This lack of strength within the economy created issues that affected the lives of everyone living in America. As rapid inflation increased, the future for the young forming country was threatened by its collapsing economy (Hunter 265). The result of the war removed the American people from the British Mercantilist trade system, but also affected the common American negatively. The American “Revolution” cannot be considered revolutionary if the economic situation was worsened and damagingly affecting the people of the country. A revolution completely changes the economic structure for the benefit of the country’s desires, while as the American “Revolution” created massive damage to the economy that left the people without a currency and in major
debt. When America earned their freedom from the British, a representative government was established, but many issues plagued this new form of government. The states had already formed their own government and laws because the people of the states feared a centralized government similar to the one they had just rebelled against. Attempts to create a representative government were made but the states responded negatively to this new system. States were not sending representatives to congressional meetings or cooperating in the process of creating a new government. This is evidence towards the lack of power the government had over the states. One of the many reasons for the war was to establish a republican government, where the people, white men, were represented in government. However, the lack of cooperation from the states due to the fear of anarchy made this very simple goal from the revolution a much more difficult reality. The men trying to create this new form government were from the same elite class as the old British representatives in position, creating no change to the group in charge (Zinn 82). Even though American was able to establish a representative government, there was simply not enough change to the foundation of the government in order for it to be called a revolution, which completely reforms the political structure of the country. Although it is true to say that the separation from Britain further benefitted America in the future, it would be wrong to say it was a “revolution”.
Society did not change in structure, nor did it have an affect on the majority of the people aside from the rich white men. The economy was greatly affected, but the average colonist was negatively affected by the collapsing economy. Politically, America was eventually successful in creating a government, but struggled to conjoin all the individual states. There have been many rebellions, riots, and civil wars in the past, but what differentiates these events from a revolution is a complete change to the social, economic and political structure, which the American “Revolution” struggled to
accomplish.