HIST362 Study Guide

Unit 2: The American Revolution

2a. Identify the immediate and long-term causes of the American Revolution

What were the primary causes of the American Revolution?
What was salutary neglect, and how did it lead to the American Revolution?
How did British policy change toward the American colonies after the Seven Years' War?
What were some significant events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Treaty of Paris?

The American Revolution consisted of a series of revolts between 1765 and 1793 when the 13 American colonies declared independence from Great Britain and formed the United States. The American colonists changed from solid British citizens to revolutionaries in just ten years due to various grievances and tensions between them and the British government, leading to a desire for independence and self-governance. Many Americans fought proudly in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 (also known as the French and Indian War). Still, British government policies transformed their pride into hostility and resentment.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the British parliament practiced salutary neglect, a laissez-faire (French term for "let do" or "leave alone") system of governance that left the colonies to govern themselves. This peaceful arrangement changed when Great Britain raised taxes to force the northern colonies to pay the Seven Years' War debt. Frustrations also mounted when Britain failed to consult the colonists on major policy issues. The colonists lacked a clear way to redress their immediate grievances. Internal factors, such as population pressures, increased consumerism and commercialism, new relationships based on contracts rather than familial ties, and new ideas about political representation (Republicanism), prompted the Americans to look for new solutions. The Americans had established a new sense of national identity.

In October 1765, several representatives formed the Stamp Act Congress to oppose Britain's new tax laws. The Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773 escalated the tension. The Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Boston Tea Party of 1773 were violent confrontations between British soldiers and American colonists, escalating tensions and pushing for independence, respectively, despite British taxation policies. In April 1775, several major confrontations sparked a revolution, including the first major clashes in Lexington and Concord. In the spring of 1776, battles followed in North Carolina, New York, and Canada. The Americans declared independence on July 4, 1776. By 1783, representatives of King George III and the United States signed The Treaty of Paris to end the American Revolutionary War.

The American Revolution differed from other revolutions during this period because it revolted against colonialism. Colonialism is a system where a country controls territories, often overseas, establishing settlements and exploiting resources for economic gain. It often leads to political, economic, and cultural domination, exploitation, and inequality. The Revolution was also anti-monarchy, opposition to or practice of a single ruler since it replaced the British monarchy with a republican form of government that supported capitalism.

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2b. Compare the Federalist and Republican visions of society and the state

How were the ideologies of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists similar and different?
How did the Federalist Papers influence the development of the U.S. government?
What is the legacy of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist visions of government?

America's Founding Fathers are the political leaders, statesmen, and thinkers who played key roles in the American Revolution and the drafting and adoption of the United States Constitution. They had conflicting ideas about the balance of power between the state and central authority. During the American Revolution, the United States had established itself under the Articles of Confederation, a constitution that gave the states the most power. The central government was a unicameral congress, a legislative body consisting of a single chamber or house that lacked the authority to raise taxes or enforce laws. When this system fell apart in 1787, the state representatives called a convention to revise the Articles. However, when the participants convened in 1787, they rewrote these government rules rather than simply revised them.

During the five-month convention (May–September 1787), the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), James Madison (1751–1836), and John Jay (1745–1829), outlined their support for a strong central government, a bicameral legislature (comprised of two houses, the Senate and House of Representatives), and a new U.S. Constitution. In 1788, they honed and strengthened their talking points by writing and publishing 85 articles and essays (the Federalist Papers) in the New York newspapers. The Federalist Papers campaigned to ratify the U.S. Constitution, laying the foundation for America's current political ideology.

By contrast, the Anti-Federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) and Patrick Henry (1739–1799), promoted state sovereignty, a limited federal government, and increased local control. They feared a strong central government would lead to tyranny. However, they failed to rally support for their arguments because they had not attended the Constitutional Convention. They eventually supported the ratification of the new U.S. Constitution, provided the Federalists added a U.S. Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments), which they modeled on the English Bill of Rights.

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2c. Describe some key ideas from the writings of the American revolutionaries

What claims did Thomas Paine make to support the fight for independence from Britain in his pamphlet Common Sense?
What were Paine's ideas about religion and representation in government?
What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Federalist Papers (1778), the U.S. Constitution (1788), and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791)?
How does the Declaration of Independence demonstrate the "logic of resistance"?
How does the Declaration of Independence define and envision equality? Which groups of citizens did the framers include in their vision of equality? Who did they exclude, and in what ways?

The American founders published articles, bills, essays, presidential addresses, and war documents to promote their cause. They penned the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) to articulate their grievances against the British and justify revolution. The Constitution (1788) established the basic structure of government, and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791), the Constitution's first ten amendments, outlined the rights of American citizens. The Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) were important founding documents.

Thomas Paine (1737–1809), one of the most influential voices of the American Revolution, drew on the ideas of the Enlightenment in his book Common Sense. He argued that all men deserve equal representation and the right to vote regardless of socioeconomic status. Paine also advocated for a rational, secular government based on the separation of church and state (see Unit 1).

Thomas Jefferson echoed the ideals of the Enlightenment and many of Paine's arguments in the Declaration of Independence. He agreed it was the right and duty of the people to replace an authoritarian government with a democratic one. His proclamation that "all men are created equal" denounced the principle of the divine right of kings. He believed citizens should periodically refresh their government via revolution.

Note that each of these founding documents articulated the notion of equality. Still, the Founding Fathers disenfranchised a significant part of the American population – women, 500,000 enslaved people, indentured servants, and non-property owners – who were not allowed to vote in elections.

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2d. Describe the legacies of the American Revolution

What do historians mean by the "American experiment"?
How did the American Revolution inspire future revolutions?
How was the American Revolution elitist, and why was it so significant?
How did the Declaration of Independence inspire future revolutions?
What was revolutionary about the American Revolution?

The American Revolution marked the first time a group of colonies united to replace a monarchical colonial system with a representative republican government. Many call the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution the American experiment. Future revolutionaries in France, Haiti, Latin America, Texas, India, Vietnam, and others followed their lead and quoted the Declaration of Independence in their founding documents.

However, many historians consider the American Revolution an elitist movement because most revolutionary leaders were wealthy landowners who had considered themselves full British citizens. They limited political participation to the white male landowners, such as themselves. Many were enslavers and denied enslaved people their equal rights as American citizens.

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2e. Explain how the Enlightenment influenced the American Revolution

How did the Enlightenment inspire the American Revolution?
How did Jefferson adapt the ideas of John Locke?
Why did the American revolutionaries question the authority of the British government?
How did the Constitution's framers build on the ideas of the Enlightenment and other sources when creating it?

The ideals of the Enlightenment directly inspired the American revolutionaries. They cited the ideas of the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke:

The social contract
The consent of the governed
The inherent equality of citizens to the monarch

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson quotes John Locke's iconic sentence: " All men are created equal…endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

The founders adopted Montesquieu's recommendation to create three separate legislative branches, with a system based on popular sovereignty (the idea that government authority is based on the consent of the governed), republicanism (where elected officials hold power), and the will of the people. They also looked to their Native American neighbors for inspiration. They invited members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six Native American (or First Nations) tribes, to join the Constitutional Convention and borrowed several ideas from their founding documents.

These ideas included the separation of powers (where different government agencies have equal authority), checks and balances (where one government entity can check the authority of another), and the process of impeachment (where one government entity can remove another for misconduct). The formation of the U.S. government on the Enlightenment philosophy and the Haudenosaunee helped the framers create a government that has lasted through modern times.

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Unit 2 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

American experiment
Anti-Federalists
Articles of Confederation
bicameral legislature
Boston Massacre
Boston Tea Party
checks and balances
colonialism
Common Sense
Federalist Papers
federalists
Founding Fathers
Haudenosaunee Confederacy
impeachment
laissez-faire
popular sovereignty
republicanism
salutary neglect
separation of powers
Seven Years' War
Stamp Act Congress
Thomas Paine
Treaty of Paris
U.S. Bill of Rights
U.S. Constitution
unicameral