The American Revolution began in 1776, leading to the creation of the United States of America in 1783. Colonial alienation from England due to taxes and unfair practices caused the conflict. The war’s impact on modern political thought is debated, but it influenced subsequent revolutions worldwide and provided a model of liberal thinking.
The uprising of the American colonies against the yoke of the mother country in 1776 sparked the political movement and war known as the American Revolution. This war also marked other transitions in political thinking, especially the growth of new republican ideals, which clashed with the traditional and formerly English set of values.
In the wake of the Revolutionary War, a new nation, the United States of America, was created with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, although the seeds had been planted some 20 years earlier. In 1763, as a result of the treaty that ended the French and Indian War, France lost its military control over the American colonies and all its North American possessions east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of two small islands off the coast of Newfoundland.
Colonial alienation from England, the root cause of the conflict, grew like a burning flame of resentment from the various taxes imposed on the 13 unrepresented colonies, most notably the Stamp Act of 1765. Britain’s unfair practice of taxing its North American colonies in order to bear the costs of its past European wars resulted in eventual separation from the mother country. The American Revolution technically began on April 19, 1775 at the Battle of Lexington and Concord and ended in 1783.
Historians differ in their interpretation of the war’s ramifications on modern political thought. Some believe that the American Revolution merely supplanted a distant political ethic with a more localized one, while others argue that it profoundly transformed the political thinking of the time regarding the growth of republicanism and the natural rights of all mankind.
No matter how one feels about the Revolution, there is no doubt that it influenced world thinking and influenced subsequent revolutions in France, Haiti, Latin America, Ireland and the Netherlands. It provides the rest of the world to this day with a working model of liberal thinking. Then there are the cries of every nation fighting for its rights and challenging the powers of its oppressor.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
