The American Revolution Was a Real Revolution

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The American Revolution was definitely revolutionary. The people broke free from Britain and gained independence. Only one third of the colonist enthusiastically supported the revolution. The colonist were unhappy and being treated terribly by their motherland and trouble started to brew.

The thirteen colonies that became the United States of America were originally colonies of Great Britain. By the time the American Revolution took place, the citizens of these colonies were beginning to get tired of the British rule. Rebellion and discontent were rampant. The main reason the colonies started rebelling against "mother England" was the taxation issue. The colonies debated England’s legal power to tax them and they did not wish to be taxed without representation. This was one of the main causes of the Revolutionary War. The Revenue Act of 1794 made the constitutional issue of whether or not the King had the right to tax the thirteen colonies an issue and eventually became an entering factor into the great dispute that was finally to wedge the American colonies from England.

The reaction against taxation became violent and the most powerful group in the population rose against the taxation. In October 1765, colonial representatives met on their own initiative for the first time. From this point on, events began to reach the point of no return for the colonies. In December 1773, the Boston Tea Party occurred as a reaction to the hated Tea Act of earlier that year. In 1774, the First Continental Congress met and formed an association, which ended up assuming leadership and spurred new local organizations to end royal authority. Because of the influence of these associations, many people joined the movement and collec...

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...cks. Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence had indicted the King for having violated the rights of distant people by encouraging the slave trade in the colonies. After independence, all the states except Georgia stopped the importation of African slaves.

The revolution offered women new opportunities as well as a new outlook. The war drew women into new roles, and they were able to come out of the confinement as strictly a domestic role. They began to become educated as well.

The revolution also set in motion a transition from the toleration of religious dissent to a complete freedom of religion in the separation of church and state.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that the American Revolution was a real revolution. It was a struggle to progress from dependent colonies to independent states, from monarch to republic….but it succeeded.

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