Compare And Contrast The American War Of Independence And Revolution
POLS208 Essay – 5a) American War of Independence and Revolution When Abraham Lincoln sought to comprehend the significance of the United States, he looked back upon the American Revolution. In doing so, he knew that the Revolution had not only legally created the United States but in turn had produced all of the hopes and values of the American citizens . This essay will attempt to describe the social and political actors involved, analyse the main events and discuss in detail the constitutional outcome that was the result of the American War of Independence and Revolution which spanned from 1775 through to 1791.
The basic cause of the American War of Independence and Revolution was the fact that in the late 18th century, Great Britain had control and restriction over the American colonists. Resistance turned into rebellion in 1776, both physically and verbally toward the British. Parliamentary taxation, restriction of …show more content…
civil liberties and the legacy of colonial political ideas all played a major role in enticing an American War and will be discussed in terms of social and political actors swaying toward the cause of war.
The American Revolution was not caused by actual tyranny, unlike the French Revolution. However has been viewed by many as a rational and conservative affair, brought to life due to anticipation of oppression as opposed to actual oppression and by complete devotion to the mantra “no taxation without representation” . This mantra rallied by American protesters in order to protest the taxes and other legislation imposed on them by Parliament that contained zero American representatives. It was in 1764 that Great Britain introduced the taxation on items such as agricultural exports, sugar, wine, coffee – in order to raise governmental revenue so that the debt could be wiped that was left from the ‘Seven Year War’. Historians nowadays refer to this as the ‘Consumer Revolution’. However, many colonists preferred British goods as opposed to their own, thus were importing £500,000 worth of goods more than what they were exporting, hence continual trouble with trade debt within the Balance of Payments . The first direct tax that was set up was donned ‘The Stamp Tax’ which mandated the use of stamps in order to support the military. They later introduced the ‘tea tax’, which stated that, the British East India Tea Company could sell their tea free of tax , however this would mean that local merchants would be cut out of the trade and overall resulted in business failures and bankruptcies everywhere – all this happened prior to the time period of the American War of Independence and Revolution, however it is critical in understanding the conditions and how long the citizens put up with it for prior to rebelling against the British.
At the beginning of 1775, the British military was already preparing for action. And in May of the same year, colonies met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress to take up where the first Congress had ended in the year prior. They continued the policy of resolves and reconciliation. They issued, what was known as, the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, it denied that Americans had any “ambitious design of separating from Great Britain, and establishing separate states”. In April, 1775 war broke out in Massachusetts, the British ordered General Gage, the appointed commander, to arrest the rebel leader, break up their bases and reassert royal authority over the American colony. On April 18th when Gage attempted to do so, the patriot leaders roused the farmers up and exchanged shots – at the end of this day 273 British and 95 Americans had been killed or wounded and the countryside had been lit on fire as an act of revolt . Two months later, at Bunker Hill, the first formal battle of the Revolution took place and the British suffered their heaviest loss of what was to be a very long war. At this stage as there was no formal American government, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia took the role and appointed George Washington as Commander, printed paper money in support of their troops and created a committee of whom were to negotiate with other countries . They were preparing to wage war against Britain, who was at this stage, the super power of the eighteenth century .
In summer later on in 1775, King George III’s actions became out of control –firstly, he ignored the American’s ‘Olive Branch petition’ in an open rebellion in August.
Later on in October, he accused the colonists of attempting independence and by December his government had declared that all American shipping on open waters was liable for seizure by British warships . With all this fighting at large, it was only a matter of time as to when America was going to cut its ties formally with the British. This ultimately was left to Thomas Paine, a former-Englishman turned colonist, who arrived in America in 1774. He expressed his anger about the current situation and George III by creating a pamphlet titled, “Common Sense”; he referred to George III as ‘Royal Brute’ and requested American independence immediately. It read “For God’s sake, let us come to a final separation… The birthday of a new world is at hand” . This pamphlet had more success than ever imagined; it was increasingly popular going through twenty-five editions in 1776 alone
.
After ‘Common Sense’ had served its purpose, later in 1776 Congress opened American ports to all foreign trade and on July 4th the delegates formally approved the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson . The Declaration posited that all grievances suffered in America since 1763 are the cause of King George III and his redcoats. At this time, slavery was essentially a national institution, and almost every white American directly or indirectly benefited from it. However, it was brought to the attention that its continued existence violated all the Revolution had stood for . “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ” – a quote from the Declaration of Independence, strongly influenced on the philosophical views of Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and particularly, John Locke at the time . This set forth a mantra of basic human rights that should be applied not only to Americans but citizens of the world.
After the establishment of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress led by Richard Henry Lee , made plans to create alliances with other countries, a confederation for common purposes and to set up state governments. The government he established, he referred to as ‘very much of a democratic kind’ although a ‘Governor and a second branch of legislation are admitted’ . During this period however many were rather uneducated when it came to defining democracy, and were under the impression that it was a technical term of political science that referred to rule by the people in the lower houses of legislatures. They implemented the American people’s view by putting an emphasis on actual representation – this was done through creating large equal electoral districts, requiring annual elections, enlarging the suffrage, imposing residential requirements for both the electors and elected, and granting constituents the right to instruct their representatives. Although most citizens were pro the democratic change, others found it difficult to comprehend, such as John Adams who stated in 1775 the idea was illogical, “a democratic despotism is a contradiction in terms.”
At this period in time, Great Britain was found diplomatically isolated, and at one point in 1779 was threatened with French invasion. Thus, the war with American independence became an important one for their establishment as a global supremacist against France. They had suffered mass losses in their first conflict with America in 1775 - however although they may seem like the stronger nation with a population of 11 million at that stage, in stark contrast to Americas 2.5 million, with one fifth being black slaves – yet, America was unconquerable. In June 1778, Britain moved their troops from their base in Philadelphia to New York. However, America was able to battle the slow moving red coats and on June 28th, the war ended in a draw – Washington and Congress considered it a victory, for the Americans had stood up to the best that Britain had to offer. The war seemed to continue year after year, however the Americans never lost sight of the revolutionary cause, and with that came the celebration of the fourth of July, Independence Day.
With the military victory over Great Britain under their belt, America started to endeavour into a whole new revolution – Republicanism. This ideology focused on the good life, citizenship, political health and social morality and can be based off ideas such as those of Machiavelli’s . Inevitably, the new American states in 1776 became republics – it struck directly at the ties of blood, kinship and dependency that lay the foundations of a monarchical society. By throwing off monarchy and becoming republicans, Americans offered a different concept of what people were like and new ways of organising the state and society. Republican citizens in short had to be patriots – love their country and free of dependent connections . The individual ownership of property, especially landed property was a necessity in a republic , both as a source of independence and as evidence of a permanent attachment to the community.
Following the Lockean ideology, the new world order was to expand the economy by creating a free port, in doing so would encourage trade alliances – America signed a treaty with France. Later, in 1784, the United States authorised a commission made up of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin to negotiate commercial treaties with sixteen European states based on the liberal principles of a revised 1784 model treaty . Their aim was to have America lead the way to an “object so valuable to mankind as the total emancipation of commerce and the bringing together all nations for a free intercommunication of happiness.”
The outcome of the Revolution saw the departure of many tens of thousands loyalists, or ‘Tories’ as the patriots referred to them. Their land, valued at millions, was taken by the Revolutionary governments and put on the market. However, there were positive outcomes that outweighed this such as an economic boom for merchants and up scaling for many families to a Massachusetts elite . Trade with Britain began to ease back into numbers where it sat pre-war, and there was socially disintegrating inflation that affected many, however those buying and selling benefited . This commercial development was so rapid that it would have been one of the fastest economies to grow in history. With this saw the fastest demographic influx of immigrants, and the population continued to grow .
In summary, many outcomes arose from the American War of Independence and Revolution that spanned over 1775-1791. As the American citizens will have discovered by now potentially to their dismay, democracy is no longer a technical term of political sciences describing the peoples representation in the lower houses of representation nor is it a simple form of government that arose from the Ancient Greek. But rather, it became the civic faith of the United States to which all Americans are bound by to uphold. “The emergence of this rambunctious middling democracy was the most significant consequence” to arise from the American Revolution. It was many years later when Harrison Gray Otis wrote to a friend of revolutionary days: “You and I did not imagine, when the first war with Britain was over, that revolution was just begun.” It is yet to end.
Word Count: 1919 Works Cited
"Blackwell Reference Online." Olive Branch Petition : A Dictionary of American History :. 1997. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Heale, M. J. The American Revolution. London: Methuen, 1986. Print.
Jefferson, Thomas, and David Waldstreicher. Notes on the State of Virginia: With Related Documents. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2002. Print.
Kimball, Marie Goebel. Jefferson, War and Peace, 1776 to 1784. [Whitefish, Mont.]: Kessinger Pub., 2005. Print.
Locke, John, and Thomas Preston Peardon. The Second Treatise of Government. New York: Liberal Arts, 1952. Print.
Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution. Stanford, California: Stanford UP, 1943. Print.
Morison, Samuel E. "OTIS, Harrison Gray - Biographical Information." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Paine, Thomas, Sidney Hook, and Jack Fruchtman. Common Sense, Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Signet Classic, 2003. Print.
Perkins, Bradford. The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, The Creation of a Republican Empire, 1776-1865. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ., 1993. Print.
"Richard Henry Lee." Ushistory.org. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Roper, Brian S. The History of Democracy - The American Revolution and Constitutional Redefinition of Democracy. London: Pluto, 2012. Print.
Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2002. Print.
The basic cause of the American War of Independence and Revolution was the fact that in the late 18th century, Great Britain had control and restriction over the American colonists. Resistance turned into rebellion in 1776, both physically and verbally toward the British. Parliamentary taxation, restriction of …show more content…
civil liberties and the legacy of colonial political ideas all played a major role in enticing an American War and will be discussed in terms of social and political actors swaying toward the cause of war.
The American Revolution was not caused by actual tyranny, unlike the French Revolution. However has been viewed by many as a rational and conservative affair, brought to life due to anticipation of oppression as opposed to actual oppression and by complete devotion to the mantra “no taxation without representation” . This mantra rallied by American protesters in order to protest the taxes and other legislation imposed on them by Parliament that contained zero American representatives. It was in 1764 that Great Britain introduced the taxation on items such as agricultural exports, sugar, wine, coffee – in order to raise governmental revenue so that the debt could be wiped that was left from the ‘Seven Year War’. Historians nowadays refer to this as the ‘Consumer Revolution’. However, many colonists preferred British goods as opposed to their own, thus were importing £500,000 worth of goods more than what they were exporting, hence continual trouble with trade debt within the Balance of Payments . The first direct tax that was set up was donned ‘The Stamp Tax’ which mandated the use of stamps in order to support the military. They later introduced the ‘tea tax’, which stated that, the British East India Tea Company could sell their tea free of tax , however this would mean that local merchants would be cut out of the trade and overall resulted in business failures and bankruptcies everywhere – all this happened prior to the time period of the American War of Independence and Revolution, however it is critical in understanding the conditions and how long the citizens put up with it for prior to rebelling against the British.
At the beginning of 1775, the British military was already preparing for action. And in May of the same year, colonies met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress to take up where the first Congress had ended in the year prior. They continued the policy of resolves and reconciliation. They issued, what was known as, the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, it denied that Americans had any “ambitious design of separating from Great Britain, and establishing separate states”. In April, 1775 war broke out in Massachusetts, the British ordered General Gage, the appointed commander, to arrest the rebel leader, break up their bases and reassert royal authority over the American colony. On April 18th when Gage attempted to do so, the patriot leaders roused the farmers up and exchanged shots – at the end of this day 273 British and 95 Americans had been killed or wounded and the countryside had been lit on fire as an act of revolt . Two months later, at Bunker Hill, the first formal battle of the Revolution took place and the British suffered their heaviest loss of what was to be a very long war. At this stage as there was no formal American government, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia took the role and appointed George Washington as Commander, printed paper money in support of their troops and created a committee of whom were to negotiate with other countries . They were preparing to wage war against Britain, who was at this stage, the super power of the eighteenth century .
In summer later on in 1775, King George III’s actions became out of control –firstly, he ignored the American’s ‘Olive Branch petition’ in an open rebellion in August.
Later on in October, he accused the colonists of attempting independence and by December his government had declared that all American shipping on open waters was liable for seizure by British warships . With all this fighting at large, it was only a matter of time as to when America was going to cut its ties formally with the British. This ultimately was left to Thomas Paine, a former-Englishman turned colonist, who arrived in America in 1774. He expressed his anger about the current situation and George III by creating a pamphlet titled, “Common Sense”; he referred to George III as ‘Royal Brute’ and requested American independence immediately. It read “For God’s sake, let us come to a final separation… The birthday of a new world is at hand” . This pamphlet had more success than ever imagined; it was increasingly popular going through twenty-five editions in 1776 alone
.
After ‘Common Sense’ had served its purpose, later in 1776 Congress opened American ports to all foreign trade and on July 4th the delegates formally approved the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson . The Declaration posited that all grievances suffered in America since 1763 are the cause of King George III and his redcoats. At this time, slavery was essentially a national institution, and almost every white American directly or indirectly benefited from it. However, it was brought to the attention that its continued existence violated all the Revolution had stood for . “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ” – a quote from the Declaration of Independence, strongly influenced on the philosophical views of Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and particularly, John Locke at the time . This set forth a mantra of basic human rights that should be applied not only to Americans but citizens of the world.
After the establishment of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress led by Richard Henry Lee , made plans to create alliances with other countries, a confederation for common purposes and to set up state governments. The government he established, he referred to as ‘very much of a democratic kind’ although a ‘Governor and a second branch of legislation are admitted’ . During this period however many were rather uneducated when it came to defining democracy, and were under the impression that it was a technical term of political science that referred to rule by the people in the lower houses of legislatures. They implemented the American people’s view by putting an emphasis on actual representation – this was done through creating large equal electoral districts, requiring annual elections, enlarging the suffrage, imposing residential requirements for both the electors and elected, and granting constituents the right to instruct their representatives. Although most citizens were pro the democratic change, others found it difficult to comprehend, such as John Adams who stated in 1775 the idea was illogical, “a democratic despotism is a contradiction in terms.”
At this period in time, Great Britain was found diplomatically isolated, and at one point in 1779 was threatened with French invasion. Thus, the war with American independence became an important one for their establishment as a global supremacist against France. They had suffered mass losses in their first conflict with America in 1775 - however although they may seem like the stronger nation with a population of 11 million at that stage, in stark contrast to Americas 2.5 million, with one fifth being black slaves – yet, America was unconquerable. In June 1778, Britain moved their troops from their base in Philadelphia to New York. However, America was able to battle the slow moving red coats and on June 28th, the war ended in a draw – Washington and Congress considered it a victory, for the Americans had stood up to the best that Britain had to offer. The war seemed to continue year after year, however the Americans never lost sight of the revolutionary cause, and with that came the celebration of the fourth of July, Independence Day.
With the military victory over Great Britain under their belt, America started to endeavour into a whole new revolution – Republicanism. This ideology focused on the good life, citizenship, political health and social morality and can be based off ideas such as those of Machiavelli’s . Inevitably, the new American states in 1776 became republics – it struck directly at the ties of blood, kinship and dependency that lay the foundations of a monarchical society. By throwing off monarchy and becoming republicans, Americans offered a different concept of what people were like and new ways of organising the state and society. Republican citizens in short had to be patriots – love their country and free of dependent connections . The individual ownership of property, especially landed property was a necessity in a republic , both as a source of independence and as evidence of a permanent attachment to the community.
Following the Lockean ideology, the new world order was to expand the economy by creating a free port, in doing so would encourage trade alliances – America signed a treaty with France. Later, in 1784, the United States authorised a commission made up of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin to negotiate commercial treaties with sixteen European states based on the liberal principles of a revised 1784 model treaty . Their aim was to have America lead the way to an “object so valuable to mankind as the total emancipation of commerce and the bringing together all nations for a free intercommunication of happiness.”
The outcome of the Revolution saw the departure of many tens of thousands loyalists, or ‘Tories’ as the patriots referred to them. Their land, valued at millions, was taken by the Revolutionary governments and put on the market. However, there were positive outcomes that outweighed this such as an economic boom for merchants and up scaling for many families to a Massachusetts elite . Trade with Britain began to ease back into numbers where it sat pre-war, and there was socially disintegrating inflation that affected many, however those buying and selling benefited . This commercial development was so rapid that it would have been one of the fastest economies to grow in history. With this saw the fastest demographic influx of immigrants, and the population continued to grow .
In summary, many outcomes arose from the American War of Independence and Revolution that spanned over 1775-1791. As the American citizens will have discovered by now potentially to their dismay, democracy is no longer a technical term of political sciences describing the peoples representation in the lower houses of representation nor is it a simple form of government that arose from the Ancient Greek. But rather, it became the civic faith of the United States to which all Americans are bound by to uphold. “The emergence of this rambunctious middling democracy was the most significant consequence” to arise from the American Revolution. It was many years later when Harrison Gray Otis wrote to a friend of revolutionary days: “You and I did not imagine, when the first war with Britain was over, that revolution was just begun.” It is yet to end.
Word Count: 1919 Works Cited
"Blackwell Reference Online." Olive Branch Petition : A Dictionary of American History :. 1997. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Heale, M. J. The American Revolution. London: Methuen, 1986. Print.
Jefferson, Thomas, and David Waldstreicher. Notes on the State of Virginia: With Related Documents. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2002. Print.
Kimball, Marie Goebel. Jefferson, War and Peace, 1776 to 1784. [Whitefish, Mont.]: Kessinger Pub., 2005. Print.
Locke, John, and Thomas Preston Peardon. The Second Treatise of Government. New York: Liberal Arts, 1952. Print.
Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution. Stanford, California: Stanford UP, 1943. Print.
Morison, Samuel E. "OTIS, Harrison Gray - Biographical Information." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Paine, Thomas, Sidney Hook, and Jack Fruchtman. Common Sense, Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Signet Classic, 2003. Print.
Perkins, Bradford. The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, The Creation of a Republican Empire, 1776-1865. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ., 1993. Print.
"Richard Henry Lee." Ushistory.org. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. .
Roper, Brian S. The History of Democracy - The American Revolution and Constitutional Redefinition of Democracy. London: Pluto, 2012. Print.
Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2002. Print.