Origin of the American Revolution (Summary)
According to the web site Academic Kids, “the American Revolution refers to the series of events, ideas, and changes that resulted in the political separation of thirteen colonies in North America from the British Empire and the creation of the United States of America”. Likewise the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783, was one of the most important ingredients of the revolution. However the revolution has its own precedents, the war started before the battle of Lexington and Concord and continued beyond the British surrender at Yorktown. In this sense, John Adams wrote "The Revolution was effected before the War commenced, The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people." The correct essence and reach of the American Revolution has been matter of interpretation. Most historian generally agreed that the revolution set its roots around the time of the French and Indian War during 1754 to 1763, and finished with the election of George Washington as the first President of the new nation in 1789. Apart from that, interpretations vary. Necessary will be to say that the America Revolutionary war was not revolutionary at all, that it did not radically change colonial structures, but simply replaced a distant government with a local one. Nevertheless, the opposite view is that the American Revolution was a unique and radical event, producing significant changes that had a profound impact on world history. Latest interpretations fall somewhere in between these two positions. By the early 1760s, Great Britain possessed a vast empire on the North American territory. Besides, to the thirteen British colonies, victory in the Seven Years' War had given Great Britain power over New France (Canada), Spanish Florida, and the Native American lands east along the Mississippi River. The war against France's former Indian allies had, if not conquered, at least pacified the western border. Most white native colonists in America considered themselves loyal inheritors of the British Crown, with the same rights and debts as people in the metropolis. As the years were passing by the colonial American’s thought was changing philosophically and radically The Enlightenment elevated natural philosophy and made, step by step to replace ideas born of tradition and authority with those based on observation and independent reasoning. In addition, the earlier scientific revolution set a greater effect on everyday life and in the conscious thought of many men everywhere. Likewise, there were an increase of publication and communications between like-minded people opening the path to new areas to question and consideration. The early works of thinkers like John Locke became from the analysis of men like Montesquieu and Rousseau. The European Enlightenment was the root of deist views of several of the Founding Fathers of the United States and their views on the proper form of government and also was a source for ideas regarding separation of church and state and other liberties. The road to rebellion can be pointed, precisely, when after the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion, newly crowned King George III tried new ways to keep under control his expansive North American possessions. In order to make the Empire more stable and profitable, new economic and land distribution policies were taken. This made colonial resentment of these new policies grew rapidly over the decade, and had a meaningful effect on the explosion of the American Revolution. In this same way, the British national debt had increased to alarming stages during the war years and so in 1760 the Crown took a series of economic policies designed to extract more monetary resources from the colonies. These policies were explainable; the reasoning was that the colonists were enjoying the advantage of the peace that had been won. In theory, the metropolis already controlled and regulated the economies of the colonies through the Navigation Acts; however, widespread evasion of these laws had long been permitted. Now, through the use of open-ended search warrants (Writs of Assistance), strict enforcement became the practice. Then, in 1761, Massachusetts lawyer James Otis argued that these court orders (writs) violated the constitutional rights of the colonists. He lost the case, but John Adams later wrote, "American independence was then and there born." In 1764, the Sugar Act and the Currency Act created economic difficulties in the colonies. Protests led to the boycott of British goods and came out with the popular slogan "no taxation without representation," in which colonists argued that only their colonial assemblies, and not Parliament, could impose taxes on them. Committees of correspondence were formed in the colonies to organize resistance. In previous years, the colonies had shown little tendency towards collective action. Grenville's policies were bringing them together. Consequently, a milestone or the event that market a great repercussion in the nascent Revolution occurred in 1765, when Grenville passed the famous Stamp Act as a way to get money for the quartering of troops in North America. The Stamp Act required all legal documents, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in the colonies to carry a tax stamp. As a result, colonial protest was widespread like epidemics. Secret societies known as the Sons of Liberty were formed in every colony, and used propaganda, intimidation, and mob violence to stop the enforcement of the Stamp Act. The furor culminated with the Stamp Act Congress, which sent a formal protest to Parliament in October of 1765. Parliament responded by repealing the Stamp Act, but emphatically declared its legal authority over the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” The sequel came in almost immediately, In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, imposing taxes on a number of common goods imported toward the colonies, including glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea. Colonial leaders coordinated boycotts of these British imports. Then, the Liberty, a ship owned by the colonial merchant John Hancock, was suspected of bringing into country illegally and arrested by customs officials in Boston on June 10, 1768. Finally, angry protests on the street led customs officials to report to London that Boston was in a state of open rebellion. In consequence, British troops arrived in Boston in October of 1768. Tensions grew to high levels, culminating in the "Boston Massacre" on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired into an angry noisy crowd, killing five. Revolutionary agitators like Samuel Adams used the event to agitate the popular resistance, but after the trial of the soldiers, who were defended by John Adams, tensions diminished. In that same year, 1770, the Townshend Acts were undone and it was still theoretically possible that further killings or injuries in the colonies might be avoided. However, the British government had imposed one tax from the Townshend Acts in place as a symbolic sign of their right to tax the colonies; it was the tax on tea. For the revolutionaries, who stated firmly the principle that only their colonial representatives could levy taxes on them was still one excessive tax. Anyway, the struggle was going to continue.
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PERSONAL OPINION
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Reading about the American Revolutionary period, I could learn and think about the history of this great country, besides, I had the chance for making comparison with the Venezuelan independence process. Certainly, many very similar facts and situation can be found, sure, all these historical events are explained by the previous ideas came from the Illustration and the French Revolution. Although, I also could realized that the United States of today does not represent those first principles that once were the just base for the constrution of the new nation. After its independence, the United States gained a tremendous power that was used to conquer other nations in many different ways, the country spread its border and grade of influence anywher, toward it could, taking mexican lands and islands in the caribbean sea, for example. The country has become in the Great Empire of the last times. The question is where are those principles of freedom and equality? Why do not contribute with all that power to the solution of the urgent words' problems? Contrarily, the country is under a race for energy, invading other countries by force, and the execution of a serie of policies that only increase poverty in many parts of the war. What is the interest in the domination over other nations? What happened with the principles that their Founder Fathers once preached? Till where can reach the double moral the involves the today's world. Here I left some lines in order to think about.
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UBALDO GANDICA
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