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The American Revolution was an incredibly complex event that would be the foundation for a new country that would come to change the world. After decades worth of trying to convince Britain to give back the rights these colonists believed they already held, they gave up their conservative ideals and mutated into a much more radical revolution. The very basis of the revolution was itself radical, as their justification originated from a liberal’s theory, and the revolution continued to be radical as seen by the efforts made by the poor, by the women, and by the attempts to unify the divided colonies. British Liberal John Locke argued that since people were not inherently evil, it the government’s purpose to protect life, liberty, and property, …show more content…
and if it can’t protect these freedoms, the people had the right to overthrow the government (Ellis 8). Although this theory presented itself over one-hundred years before the American Revolution, it resurfaced during the Enlightenment, which was later used in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Thomas Paine combined ideas from the Enlightenment, Great Awakening, and John Locke to argue that the British monarchy had become tyrannical and only democracy was to be trusted in his pamphlet, Common Sense. This was incredibly radical because it challenged British government and inspired enough neutral Americans (30% of the population who did not support loyalists or patriots) to lean in the patriots’ direction, which eventually led to the Declaration of Independence (Ellis 9). The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal” and were entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” an idea that stems from Locke’s theory. John Locke, Thomas Paine, and the Declaration of Independence are all radical because they uprooted Britain’s ideal hierarchy, the Chain of Being, and championed ideas where the people are more equal and entitled to more power. Building on the radical idea of people being more equal and having more power, this is especially evident in the poor classes in the colonies. The Sons of Liberty was a group that protested British policies, like the Stamp Act, by empowering lower classes to rise. This was accomplished by the Sons using taverns to create networks where people from all social classes, including the middling, poor, and illiterate, worked together equally to achieve common goals (Ellis 8). One form of protest was through tar and feathering, which was a brutal public humiliation of tax collectors where they would be tarred and covered in feathers. This was much more extreme than conservative boycotting and can reflect the anger many Americans held at this time, which would continue to fester until they finally won independence. Furthermore, by the mid-1770s, 40% of the population was determined to gain independence after most of them (planters, artisans, and merchants) were infuriated by the Navigation Acts, which prohibited selling goods to foreign countries and hurt their business and trade (Ellis 9). This part of the population was known as patriots and consisted of citizens from all social classes, including the poor, who were now given a voice and the power to change their lives. This was especially radical because these people didn’t have power prior to the revolution. Just as the poor class was given rights they had not previously experienced, women were similarly affected, too. Women had found their voice after the Townshend Duties, or tariffs on lead, paper, paint, and tea, were imposed on the colonies. Although boycotts were primarily conservative at the time, the boycotts the women participated in are radical because women did not have this ability to voice their opinions before this. Some women even went as far as to write a petition to the king to repeal the duties, which was known as the Edenton Tea Party, and was radical that they were able to do this, even though they were met with harsh opposite via a smear campaign. Just like boycotts, classical republicanism, the idea that the hardest working and talented would rise to the top of society through a “natural aristocracy,” is thought to be more conservative (Ellis 10). However, a product of this was Republican Motherhood and this was radical because it argued that in order to raise virtuous children, women must also be educated. Consequently, Massachusetts began offering free public education to women in 1789 (Ellis 10). Considering women hadn’t had the right to be educated before the revolution, the fact that they were now able to is extremely radical. The revolution was also radical in its unifying the divided colonies, which eventually gave rights to many who hadn’t yet possessed them.
Ideas of independence wasn’t a new idea in the colonies, in fact, ideas of independence stem back to 1754 with the Albany Plan of Union. It suggested a slightly independent colonial government loyal to Britain, in an effort to unite the colonies to fight their common enemy, France. However, this motion was rejected by all colonies and proves they weren’t yet ready to take the radical step of unifying and independence (Ellis 7). In 1781, the Articles of Confederation was an attempt at an independent United States with a weak national government restricted in power by the requirement that states must approve laws, taxes, and treaties. It failed but set in motion the creation of the most radical thing to come out of the revolution: The Constitution. James Madison believed that factions would help balance out government by forcing compromises so to protect the freedoms of everyone, not just a specific group (Ellis 11). This was a radical idea because it also supported minority freedoms and helped influence the outcome of the Constitutional Convention. The Constitutional Convention was a gathering that created The Constitution, the new plan for the United States’ government. It was radical because it gave rights to people who hadn’t possessed them in the past through compromise outcomes, such as the Bill of Rights, Congress legislature with two houses, adequate state representation in government, and the electoral college, among other things (Ellis 11). At this point, America had won independence from Britain, established their own government, and included rights to significantly more people (and more as time progressed) than they ever had as
colonies. In the end, the colonies might have meant their actions to preserve their rights and act conservatively, but through John Locke’s ideas, giving not before seen power to the poor and women, and unifying the colonies is what helped plunge the colonies into their radical revolution. The war they fought was not a war to regain the rights they thought they had, but to give rights to those who hadn’t possessed them previously. Furthermore, the shockwaves of independence the Americans felt in the revolution would continue to influence America for centuries to come, such as women demanding suffrage, slaves demanding freedom, and African Americans demanding civil rights.
According to Carl N. Degler, the entire Revolution should be viewed as a conservative change. In “A New Kind of Revolution,” Degler talked about how the new actions taken place by the English had help structure and shape the colonial government. Not only did the colonies lack the affection of their motherland, Britain, they were also taxed unfairly. On the other hand, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” by Gordon S. Wood talks about how the American Revolution was a radical movement. His thesis covered how the country was transitioning from monarchy to republic, and now, democracy.
Wood argues that the prosperity of the revolutionaries and the destruction of paternalism in America prove the radical nature of the revolution. In most revolutions, the bulk of the revolutionary force is comprised of disenfranchised poor people, but the American Revolution was bizarrely made up mostly of well-to-do colonists who made their fortune in British America. Wood proves this fact by noting the statistical lack of mass poverty in America, as compared with other nations in the western world. Wood also argues that the American Revolution was inherently radical because it destroyed the entire system of dependency in America inherited from Great Britain’s ancient feudal tradition. From the onset, Wood claims, British America lacked the titles of nobility that Great Britain possessed. As such, there was an unprecedented amount of equality within the colonies, which many Americans enjoyed. Regardless of their social status, with enough work, an American was capable of gaining great prosperity, a feat which Wood claims was impossible in Europe. In Europe, the only way a man of no status could rise above his birth was in securing the
Gordon Wood’s Radicalism of the American Revolution is a book that extensively covers the origin and ideas preceding the American Revolution. Wood’s account of the Revolution goes beyond the history and timeline of the war and offers a new encompassing look inside the social ideology and economic forces of the war. Wood explains in his book that America went through a two-stage progression to break away from the Monarchical rule of the English. He believes the pioneering revolutionaries were rooted in the belief of an American Republic. However, it was the radical acceptance of democracy that was the final step toward independence. The transformation between becoming a Republic, to ultimately becoming a democracy, is where Wood’s evaluation of the revolution differs from other historians. He contributes such a transformation to the social and economic factors that faced the colonists. While Gordon Wood creates a persuasive argument in his book, he does however neglect to consider other contributing factors of the revolution. It is these neglected factors that provide opportunity for criticism of his book.
The American Revolution, also known as the War for Independence began from 1785-1783. The primary cause for the war was because of a conflict between the 13 British colonies and England. The American Revolution resulted in a victory for the 13 British colonies who would declare themselves as the United States of America. However, there are many questions on whether or not the American Revolution was really revolutionary and if there were revolutionary changes being made to society. The American Revolution was not revolutionary because separation between African-Americans and Whites still existed, no change in women's representation or their voices being valued as high as men, and the Indians were promised the “Utmost Good Faith” but the result
“If we measure the radicalism of revolutions by the degree of social misery or economic deprivation suffered, or by the number of people killed or manor houses burned, then this conventional emphasis on the conservatism of the American Revolution becomes true enough. B...
During the American revolution, the revolution itself was radical for the merchants and other groups of people. Radical means that there is social, economic and political change. The American revolution gave new economic significant to groups of people such as thee merchants. The revolution was radical because many merchants economic opputonity before the French and Indian War the merchant were benefiting and after they having to deal with new taxation. Also after the revolution the merchant group face a time of economic problems until the US constitution was enacted. The revolution was radical for the merchant economically and politically.
The fight for change and liberty is no stranger to this world. Since 2740 BC, over hundreds of revolutions and rebellions have taken place, all of which demanded a reform or a change of some nature. Within the last century, many major revolutions have been developing in continents such as Asia and Africa. In the non-fiction book The Political Thought of the American Revolution, written by Clinton Rossiter, Rossiter claims that perhaps modern revolutions, such as these in Asia and Africa, have deviated far from the core foundations of the American Revolution. In this book, Rossiter conveys that the American Revolution was the first revolution to have success from breaking away from another country and government.
The American Revolution was a war in which the colonists achieved political independence from their former rulers Great Britain. It was "the formulation of new principles of the relation of men to government, and of the relation of colonies to mother country. It was the inauguration of effective self-government and of social and economic equality."1 The colonists, in effect, achieved full autonomy from Great Britain through the American Revolution. The colonists felt (for the betterment of all Americans) that it was their duty and responsibility to rise up against their oppressors to form their own government. John Adams even states, "[that] the real American Revolution was a radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people. Above all, [the Revolution] was in the minds and hearts of the peopl...
The American Revolution has too often been dominated by the narrative of the founding fathers and has since been remembered as a “glorified cause.” However, the American Revolution was not a unified war but a civil war with many internal disputes that wreaked havoc and chaos throughout America. In his book, The Unknown American Resvolution, Gary B. Nash attempts to unveil the chaos that the American Revolution really was through the eyes of the people not in power, including women, African American slaves, and Native Americans. In his book, Gary B. Nash emphasizes their significance in history to recount the tale of the American Revolution not through the eyes of the privileged elite but through the eyes of the people who sacrificed and struggled the most, but were left forgotten, in their endeavors to reinvent America.
The start of the American Revolution, described by Edmund Morgan as, “the shot heard around the world,” was the “Americans’ search for principles” (Bender 63). Although the world’s colonies did not necessarily seek independence much like the Americans, the world’s colonies were nonetheless tired of the “administrative tyranny” being carried out by their colonizers (Bender 75). The American Revolution set a new standard in the colonies, proclaiming that the “rights of Englishmen” should and must be the “rights of man,” which established a new set foundation for the universal rights of man (Bender 63). This revolution spread new ideas of democracy for the colonized world, reshaping people’s expectations on how they should be governed. Bender emphasizes America as challenging “the old, imperial social forms and cultural values” and embracing modern individualism” (Bender 74). Bender shapes the American Revolution as a turning point for national governments. The American Revolution commenced a new trend of pushing out the old and introducing new self-reliant systems of government for the former
Analyzing the post-revolutionary governments of America and France will prove that the French Revolution was far more revolutionary than the American Revolution, due to the radical change that took place, the type of government implemented after, as well as the Napoleonic Code brought forth by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The American Revolution was a conflict that arose from growing tensions between Great Britain and the Thirteen North American colonies. It was a long bloody war and one of the most well-known, and because of that it has many interpretations, and these interpretations have made it a challenge to be able to come to a single understanding of the war. In this week’s readings, two different views on the same war are given. The American Yawp describes the American colonies point of view on the revolution while the History Lesson discusses how British wanted to control America but instead drove them to rebel and fight for their independence. The colonists saw the war for their independence as a revolution, but through British eyes, events and people were, not surprisingly, seen quite differently.
..., certain women were able to participate in politics and government issues like never before. People of color were given freedom and able to form communities that likely would not have existed if not for the principles of the Revolution. The inherent rights and responsibilities of all men, women, coloreds, and whites were eventually recognized and respected, and the Revolution served as a starting point. Zagarri states, “The Revolution established universal ideals as the benchmark by which American society would subsequently judge the fairness and equity of its policies.” These established ideals and this story of extreme change in the way people viewed freedom is nothing short of radical. The successful way in which the Revolution surpassed European political and social traditions can only be described as radical. The American Revolution, therefore, was radical.
Review this essay John Locke – Second treatise, of civil government 1. First of all, John Locke reminds the reader from where the right of political power comes from. He expands the idea by saying, “we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” Locke believes in equality among all people. Since every creature on earth was created by God, no one has advantages over another.
The American Revolution marked the divorce of the British Empire and its one of the most valued colonies. Behind the independence that America had fought so hard for, there emerged a diverging society that was eager to embrace new doctrines. The ideals in the revolution that motivated the people to fight for freedom continued to influence American society well beyond the colonial period. For example, the ideas borrowed from John Locke about the natural rights of man was extended in an unsuccessful effort to include women and slaves. The creation of state governments and the search for a national government were the first steps that Americans took to experiment with their own system. Expansion, postwar depression as well as the new distribution of land were all evidence that pointed to the gradual maturing of the economic system. Although America was fast on its way to becoming a strong and powerful nation, the underlying issues brought about by the Revolution remained an important part in the social, political and economical developments that in some instances contradicted revolutionary principles in the period from 1775-1800.