The American Revolution: The Impact Of The American Revolution

The Impact of the American Revolution During the late eighteenth century, the thirteen colonies demanded independence from the domineering Great Britain. Angered by unjust taxes and acts limiting the autonomy of the colonies, the colonies acquiesced in a weak union to fight for freedom from oppression and British rule forever. While the American Revolution caused massive change in the political structure of the government, the fight for independence had less impact on the social atmosphere and economy of the United States. The American Revolution incited the most change politically, because a completely new system government was created. After a long period of salutary neglect, in 1763 Prime Minister George Grenville began to enforce the

The Articles of Confederation had been proven weak, illustrating the need for a stronger government. Consequently, 55 delegates from various states met at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 to draft a Constitution. The Constitution created a whole new structure of government. The American Revolution made Americans realize that they did not want to another monarchy to take place so they created checks and balances with three branches of government. Decided in the Great Compromise, the representation in Congress was made more equal. Instead of each state having one vote like in the Articles of Confederation, benefitting smaller states, there was two houses created, one with representation by population and the other having a set number of senators for each state. Additionally, the president could be voted on in the electoral college and a judicial branch ensures the Constitution was followed. With new political ideals, came the creation of political groups which took a stance against each other. A group of Federalists, made up of many east-coast settlers and former loyalists, advocated for strong

The American Revolution caused the economy to suffer from inflation and great amounts of debt, as the Continental Congress was forced to print money to pay for war. The United States faced so much debt to foreign countries that Spain closed off the Mississippi River in 1784 and many North African states began pirating Yankee trade ships. In order to handle this debt, Hamilton introduced the Funding Act of 1790, which proposed that the United States’ government would assume the debts of all the states and try to pay it off at face value. The main difference in economy that the American Revolution caused as an increase in available land and trading opportunities. The Treaty of Paris 1783 granted more land to the United States that was controlled by the federal government. Under the Land Ordinances of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the federal government divided up land in 36 sections to sell so other territories of settlers could eventually become states after reaching 60,000 inhabitants. The last minor impact of the American Revolution was trade. Free from British rule, Americans were no longer subjugated to mercantilist ideas to limit and control trade. As a result, many Yankee ships sailed far to make trade agreements with foreign countries, when they previously could only trade with Great Britain. Despite the little bit more economic enterprise warranted to