Excerpted from: Stavrianos "Global History: The World Before and After 1500"
We should not exaggerate the effectiveness of the teachings of the Enlightenment by benevolent despots. It was not until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 that the Enlightenment greatly affected the people of Europe. But before 1789, a revolution had broken out in the thirteen British colonies that provided an experimental demonstration of the new doctrine in action.
As we have mentioned earlier, one of the chief characteristics of the thirteen colonies was that they were politically unmanageable, and their elected parliamentarians were at odds with governors and other officials sent from London. We also mentioned that Britain decisively defeated France in the Seven Years' War and, through the Treaty of Paris in 1763, acquired French colonies to the North to the Arctic Ocean and to the West to the Mississippi River. The British and the Americans were very proud of their great joint victory. However, this victory caused new problems while solving old problems.
A new problem was that the spirit of independence of the thirteen colonies was growing, as the danger of a French attack had been removed. Another new problem was the British government's decision to tighten its grip on the imperial organization after acquiring huge new colonies. This intensification may have been possible in the early stages, but then, after a long period of "beneficial neglect" and the removal of the French threat, the colonists were convinced that they could take care of themselves and had the full right to do so. Thus, the American Revolution arose essentially from the conflicting demands of imperial power and colonial self-government; the Governor of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard, in his letter to his superiors in London on November 23, 1765, made it very clear shows this:
All political ills in the United States stem from the failure to establish the relationship between Great Britain and the American colonies. Thus, in Britain and in the United States, there are various opinions about this relationship, which are inconsistent and contradictory to each other. In Britain, the governments of the United States are regarded as societies authorized to make local laws, which exist only when the Congress pleases, and the Congress . . . has the power to dissolve them at any time. In America they profess to be . ... In a conflict of this magnitude, who will decide?
The answer to this decisive question is the army. Not all, not even most, of the American colonists were in favor of resorting to violence. In fact, they split into two rival camps. Conservatives wish only to restore the loose relations between the mother country and the colonies that prevailed before 1763. But the activists demanded a change in imperial relations that would give the colonies full control of their own affairs, and they also demanded a shift of political power within the colonies in favor of the common people. With regard to the latter point, conservatives are vehemently opposed. They did not want to introduce democracy; instead, they wanted to maintain the leadership of the upper classes, as was the case with the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688. In the end, the activists were able to go their separate ways, thanks to the repeated acts of incompetent officials in Britain.
The steps leading up to the revolution are well known and need not be described in detail. The first was the 1763 announcement of a ban on immigration west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was intended as a temporary measure to keep the peace until an orderly land policy could be drawn up, but those who would become settlers and speculators thought they would be permanently excluded for the benefit of the few British fur traders. Then came the imposition of a series of fiscal measures, the promulgation of the Sugar Tax Act, the Garrison Act, the Stamp Duty Act, and the Townsend Tax Act; the aim was to pass on part of the burdensome British tax burden to the American colonists superior. These levies seemed reasonable to the British, especially in view of the costs of the recent war against the French and the projected costs necessary to protect the American frontier in the future. But the colonists, who were all affected by these taxes, were unanimous in their opposition. They convened an intercontinental convention to organize a boycott of British goods until these fiscal measures were lifted. However, the British government imposed another series of ill-conceived measures, causing a new storm that led to the revolution.
A string of dramatic events—the East India Company's monopoly on tea, the Boston Tea Party case, the decree of coercion or intolerance as punishment for vandalism in Boston Harbor—are familiar. At that time, in 1774, the British Parliament also passed the Quebec Act, which provided a system of government for the conquered French and commercial Canadians and demarcated the borders of Quebec, which included all the territory north of the Ohio River, which is now Wisconsin State, Michigan Week, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Much can be said about defending the Quebec Act, but the American colonists denounced it as yet another intolerable statute that blocked the westward expansion of the Catholic French-Canadians for the benefit of them.
In September 1774, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to organize yet another boycott of British goods. The fighting began the following year when British troops traveled from Boston to Concord to snatch the secret munitions depot there. It was during this battle that someone "voiced the gunshots of the world" on the Lexington lawn. The result was that British troops found themselves besieged in Boston. In the second month, June 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened, which had to take charge of a formal war and begin recruiting an American army.
The Assembly remained reluctant to make a final break with the mother country. But as the fighting spread, sentiment for independence grew. In January 1776, Paine published his provocative pamphlet Common Sense. Paine, who had just come to America from England two years ago, hated the injustices of British society. Now, in his pamphlet, he enthusiastically motivates the colonists to abandon the tyranny of the "Old World":
It is absurd to assume that a continent will always be dominated by an island. Under no circumstances does nature make a moon larger than its principal planet; since England and America have reversed the usual order of nature in relation to each other, it is evident that they belong to different systems. England belongs to Europe; America belongs to itself.
what! People who love human beings! Those who dare to oppose not only tyranny but also tyranny, stand up! Everywhere in the old world was heavily oppressed. Freedom is being driven out all over the world. Asia and Africa have long expelled liberty, Europe sees liberty as a stranger, and Britain warns liberty to leave. what! Accept this fugitive and prepare a sanctuary for mankind!
Let each one of us extend a warm hand of friendship to our neighbor... let the names of Whigs and Zali die out; let us listen not to others, but to honest citizens; they are candid and steadfast Friends, courageous champions of human rights and a free, independent nation of America.
Common Sense was circulated throughout the colonies, and it greatly contributed to the General Assembly's decision on July 4, 1776, to accept the Declaration of Independence. The decisive factor proved to be French aid to the revolutionaries once the military operation began to be fully underway. During the first two years of the war, France was not formally involved, however, it sent a steady stream of arms to the colonies. Nine-tenths of the weapons used by the Americans at the decisive Battle of Saratoga in 1777 were of French origin. The following year, France formed an alliance with the insurgents and declared war on Britain. The Netherlands and Spain joined the French side, while most of the other European powers formed an alliance of armed neutrality to protect their trade from the British navy. The aid of the French navy and a French expeditionary force of 6,000 men contributed greatly to the victory of George Washington's army and contributed to the final British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally recognized the independence of the American Republic, with its frontier extending westward to the Mississippi River. However, Canada remained British and received 60,000 American Tories still loyal to Britain, equal in number to the original French inhabitants of the St. Lawrence Valley.
From a world-historical point of view, the American Revolution was important not because it created an independent nation, but because it created a new, different type of nation. The Declaration of Independence had declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." And so, during and after the Revolution, the American people adopted a declaration aimed at making this Declaration not only on paper but also Laws that are realized in life.
First, these laws abolished limited heirs and primogeniture in the Eastern Hemisphere. The land of the named heir cannot be sold outside the family, and primogeniture requires the land to be handed over to the eldest son. The purpose of these systems was to keep the great estates intact under the management of their inherited owners. But 10 years after the Declaration of Independence, all but two states abolished heirship, and 15 years after the Declaration, every state also abolished primogeniture. In other words, the new American republic was built on small estates run by farmers themselves, not on large estates controlled by a few. Tories such as the Fairfax family of Virginia owned 6 million acres; the seizure and distribution of large estates owned by the Tories also facilitated this process. These properties were seized and sold in small parcels, thus significantly changing land ownership in the New Republic.
The American Revolution also led to a vast expansion of citizenship, although male suffrage was not established until 50 years later. The revolution also fostered a movement against slavery. One by one state governments passed laws prohibiting the importation of slaves—Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1774, Delaware in 1776, Virginia in 1778, Maryland in 1783, and by 1784, regulations were gradually Laws for the complete and complete abolition of slavery were passed in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Even in Virginia's slavery center, laws were passed in 1782 to make it easier to free slaves, and within eight years more than 10,000 slaves in the state were freed.
Greater freedom of religious belief was another result of the revolution. Previously, nine of the thirteen colonies had established state churches. That means Congregationalists living in Maryland must help support Episcopal churches in the state; Episcopal Church members living in Massachusetts must help support local Congregational churches; and even those who don't join the church at all see A portion of their taxes goes to support a state church. Immediately after the revolution began, however, established churches in five states were abolished, thus beginning the freedom of religious belief that has characterized contemporary America.
The constitutional system was also strengthened by the revolution. Thirteen states have accepted constitutions based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. These constitutions give exclusive privileges to property owners and are not fully democratic. However, they limit the right to rule through the separation of the functions of government, and attach the Bill of Rights, which sets out the natural rights of citizens and some things that no government has ever done justly.
The Northwest Act of 1787 ensured that the West would share in the hard-won benefits of the American Revolution: it stipulated that new states should be established north of the Ohio River, which were identical to the old states in all laws, but could not slavery. The Western States would not have to go through the colonial affiliation of the former states or the system of competitive expansion. On the contrary, when they can achieve statehood, they will enjoy the rights and freedoms that the original thirteen states had won in war and revolution by virtue of the principles of flexible federalism.
These changes were not as extensive and profound as those brought about by the French and Russian Revolutions. These later revolutions, especially the Russian Revolution, resulted in far more social and economic reforms than the American Revolution. However, the American Revolution had far-reaching effects at the time. The establishment of an independent republic in the Americas was widely interpreted in Europe as: it meant that the ideas of the Enlightenment were practicable—that it was possible for a people to establish a state, to formulate a system based on the rights of individuals practicable government.
The constitutions adopted by the states of the United States were particularly impressive to Europeans at the time. They hailed the Bill of Rights, which enumerates the inalienable rights of human beings - freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from arbitrary detention. As we shall see, it is no accident that the publication of "Awareness of Human and Civil Rights" formed the climax of the French Revolution. The committee that drafted the manifesto acknowledged that "this noble idea" originated in the Americas. "We have cooperated in those events that established liberty in North America; North America showed us on what principles we should base our protection on ourselves. . . ." The United States served as a model when drafting their respective constitutions in 1830.
The important point is that America has become a symbol of freedom and opportunity. It is envied as a new piece of land free from the burdens and accumulations of previous millennia. For example, the German musician and poet Schubert declared that in the United States, thirteen "golden doors are open to the victims of intolerance and authoritarian politics." Likewise, Jefferson's Italian friend, Philippe Mazzei, wrote that the vast majority of Italians were admirers of the United States -- they "loudly call it the cause of mankind, even though they live under a tyrannical government." In Ireland, nationalist leader Henry Gratton, inspired by the success of the American Revolutionaries, told his countrymen, "Until you are sure of the viability of slavery, always look toward America." A British warning said: "When the United States sends its ambassador ... to Europe and asserts its independence and power to the world, do you imagine that you will convince Ireland to settle for a British Parliament that makes laws for it?"
The American statesman at the time, Edmund Burke, had realized the significance of the American Revolution, and he declared: A great revolution has taken place--a revolution not due to a change in power in any existing state, but due to A new kind of new country has emerged in a new part of the world. It has caused a great change in all power relations, balances and trends of power, just as the appearance of a new planet would cause a great change in the solar system.
Even today, the impact of the American Revolution on the course of world history can be felt when dramatic changes have transformed American society and new, more radical revolutionary movements have taken control of much of the world.
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