Understanding the Uniqueness of the American Revolution

1709 Words4 Pages

The American Revolution took place between 1765 and 1783, during this period rebel colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. The revolution eventually led to a civil war that became known as The American Revolutionary war. Some historians have argued that the American revolution was different to others due to the lack of terror etc, ‘does not seem to have the same kind of causes- social wronging’s, the class conflict, the impoverishment, the grossly inequitable distributions of wealth- that presumably lie behind other revolutions.’ It was also stated by then future 2nd president John Adams in 1818 that, ‘a radical One of the most significant results of the revolution was the creation of a democratically-elected representative government that became in theory responsible for the will of the people, but due to the 'Three-Fifths Compromise ' allowed the southern slaveholders to bulid power and maintain slavery in America for another eighty years due to them gaining more of an electoral vote. The new Constitution established a relatively strong federal national government that included a strong elected president, national courts, a two-tier Congress that represented both states in the Senate and population in the House of Representatives. Congress had powers of taxation that were absent under the old Articles. The United States Bill of Rights of 1791 involved the first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing many "natural rights" that were influential in justifying the revolution, and attempted to balance a strong national government with strong state governments and extensive personal rights. The American shift to liberal republicanism, and the gradually increasing democracy, caused an upheaval of traditional social hierarchy and led the way for the core of political values in the United States. It was expressed by conservatives like James Kent who as a radical wanted ‘‘to dissolve the long intricate and oppressive chain of subordination,’ of the old monarchical society,’ suggesting that lot of the change had more to do with politics and a desire for a new way of running things than it did with social problems within the

Open Document