-Caveat Lector-
Thanks Lassey - I do have some old books here (plus 1000 or more in
addition to those) and some date back to late 1600 period (of English
origin).
The Revolutuionary War was the War of Independence.....then came the
document where it was as a judge would say in court, reduced to writing.
Old Hells Fire Club had a lot to do with this document as it broke up
because of this upcoming war - some wanted American to be loyal to the
King but John Wilkes sided with Americans in wanting freedom - these
Hogarth prints I have are over 200 years old = some of the plates
engraved in late 1600 period.
They (the prints) tell a history of England and I find too in Art - well
Hogarth prints full of masonic secrets, like the five dollar bills with
hidden dates?
So thanks Lassey - appreciate the thougtht.
Only book I have read as of late is Kris' book BARRY AND THE BOYS and
boy that is a must read if you are sincerly a conspracy advocate...This
was the War of Independence - period. Now Benjamin Franklin and William
Hogarth see their hand in this document for this Article I, Section 8
refers to the Arts an Sciences but people do not understand what this
really means.......Hogarth was responsible for first copyright act and
you can be sure - well look at all the stuff Benjamin Franklin invented
even unto almost getting knocked on his can with a kite.....and he was
Illuminati in the English Club and this is why he is often credited with
being English Spy.....his son was, I think loyal to the crown.
Thanks again Lassy and this is a nice item you might enjoy - The War of
Independence, and then, it was reduced to writing?
Saba
American Revolution (1775-1783), conflict between 13 British colonies
in North America and their parent country, Great Britain.
It was made up of two related events:
the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the formation of the
American government as laid out by the Constitution of the United States
in 1787.
First, the war achieved independence from Great Britain by the colonies.
Second, the newly created United States of America established a
republican form of government, in which power resided with the people.
The revolution had many causes. Long-term social, economic, and
political changes in the colonies before 1750 provided the basis for an
independent nation with representative political institutions. More
immediately, the French and Indian War (1754-1763) changed the
relationship between the colonies and their mother country.
Finally, a decade of conflicts between the British government and the
colonists, beginning with the Stamp Act crisis in 1765, led to the
outbreak of war in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Once independent, the new state governments implemented republican
constitutions, and a Continental Congress directed the American war
effort.
Then in 1781 the rebellious states created a loose union under the
Articles of Confederation.
At the end of the war in 1783, Britain recognized its former colonies as
an independent nation. In 1789 the people of the several states ratified
the Constitution that created a stronger central government.
II.
The British Colonies in 1750
Print section
A. The American People
Print section
Britain's 13 North American colonies experienced an extraordinary rate
of population growth. In 1700 the population was about 250,000; seven
decades later there were about 2,500,000 inhabitants, a tenfold
increase. This phenomenal growth was a prerequisite for a successful
independence movement. In 1700 there were 20 people in Britain for every
American colonist; by 1775 this ratio had fallen to 3 to 1.
The American population also changed in composition. The proportion of
the colonists who were of English culture and ancestry steadily declined
during the 1700s as the result of the arrival, by forced or voluntary
migration, of new racial and ethnic groups. Among the 80 percent of
Americans who were of European descent, there were important cultural
divisions. Migrants from Germany, Scotland, and Ireland made up at least
30 percent of the white population.
Members of these groups often settled in their own communities,
especially in the mid-Atlantic colonies of Delaware, New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Others migrated into the backcountry regions
of the Southern colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia), thus adding ethnic diversity to a region already
divided along racial lines. Only the New England colonies of
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire remained
predominantly English in composition and culture.
In 1775 about one-fifth of the people of the mainland colonies were of
African ancestry. Unlike Latin America and the West Indies, North
American slaves had a high rate of natural increase. About 250,000
Africans were brought to the mainland colonies before 1775, but the
total black population numbered 567,000 on the eve of independence. Most
lived as slaves working on tobacco and rice plantations in the Southern
colonies.
Slaves and some free blacks also lived in the Northern colonies,
working on small farms or in cities.
Diversity existed not only in the population but also in religious life.
Many of the American colonists were not members of any church. Of those
who had a religious affiliation, the vast majority were Protestant
Christians. There were significant numbers of Roman Catholics in
Maryland and Delaware, and a small number of Jews, mostly in Rhode
Island. Among the Protestants, there were significant regional
variations. In New England, the Congregational Church was legally
established; all residents had to contribute to its support. In the
South, the Church of England likewise received state support. However,
Scots-Irish migrants created Presbyterian churches in the Southern
backcountry. In addition, many Baptist congregations were formed during
the Great Awakening, an important religious revival that swept through
all the colonies during the 1740s. In the mid-Atlantic colonies, there
were many different faiths, including Quakers, Dutch Reformed,
Mennonites, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans, so that it was
difficult to enforce support for a single established church.
This growth in population and diversity made the American colonies more
difficult for Britain to rule. It was therefore an important
precondition for the rise of an independence movement and the subsequent
emergence of a unique American nationality.
B. The Political System
Print section
In 1750 there was little political basis for a national consciousness in
the colonies of British North America. Each of the 13 colonies was a
separate entity, with its own governor and legislative assembly. The
inhabitants' first political allegiance was to their own colony. The
lower house of each legislature was elected by the adult white men who
were property owners. However, the upper houses, or councils, and the
governors were chosen in different ways depending on the type of colony.
There were three kinds of colonies: corporate, proprietary, and royal.
Rhode Island and Connecticut were corporate colonies, so called because
they had been founded under charters granted by the king of England that
bestowed corporate rights. In these two colonies, the corporation of
property owners elected the council and governor as well as the
assembly. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were proprietary
colonies, ruled by descendants of their founders. Their governors and
councils were chosen by their British proprietors, or owners. Georgia,
North and South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire were royal provinces. Their governors were appointed
by the king on the advice of the Board of Trade, the British
administrative agency that supervised colonial affairs. Their councils,
except in Massachusetts, were nominated by the governor and approved by
the Board of Trade.
In 1750 there were no governmental bodies or political parties that
could formulate policy for the colonists as a whole. Such intercolony
ties were created only in response to political events that affected all
the colonies�first the French and Indian War and then the struggle for
independence.
Nevertheless, the colonies shared one important political institution.
Each colony had a representative assembly with authority to make laws
covering most aspects of local life. The assemblies had the right to
tax; to appropriate money for public works and public officials; and to
regulate internal trade, religion, and social behavior. Although the
British government was responsible for external matters, such as foreign
affairs and trade, the American colonists had a great deal of
self-government during the colonial period. The capable leaders of the
assemblies took the lead in the independence struggle. These
well-functioning representative institutions would form the basis for
the new state governments.
C. Economy and Society
Print section
In addition to the rapid growth and diversity of the population and the
experience in representative government, the emergence of a prosperous
agricultural and commercial economy in the colonies during the 18th
century helped pave the way for the independence movement. This economic
system was based on the production of wheat, cattle, corn, tobacco, and
rice in America for export to the West Indies, Britain, and Europe.
1. The South
Print section
Southern agriculture was founded on the cultivation of tobacco, wheat,
and corn in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina, and of rice and
indigo (a blue dye) in South Carolina and Georgia. There was a large
demand for these crops in Europe. These crops were cultivated with the
help of black slaves imported from Africa. The white planter class in
the South was the most powerful, both politically and economically.
2. The North
Print section
Wheat was the main cash crop of the mid-Atlantic colonies of
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. These colonies, along with those
in New England, exported wheat�along with corn, cattle, horses, fish,
and wood�primarily to the West Indies. The British and French planters
of the Caribbean, exploiting a mainly African labor force, specialized
in the production of sugar for export to Europe and imported many of
their foodstuffs. The Northern mainland prospered from this vast
transatlantic division of labor. In payment for supplies shipped to the
West Indies, their merchants received bills of exchange (essentially
credit slips) from merchant houses in Great Britain. These credits were
then used to purchase British manufactured goods.
3. Trade Patterns and Urban Growth
Print section
The two most important trade routes in terms of volume and financial
return were controlled by British merchants: the tobacco and the sugar
trades. American merchants dominated two small trades routes: the export
of rice to Europe and the export of supplies from the Northern mainland
to the West Indies. However, American control of these subsidiary trade
routes undermined the British policy of mercantilism, which depended on
raw materials from the colonies that were shipped to Great Britain and
then exported as finished products. This policy discouraged any colonial
trade except with Great Britain.
The colonists' participation in transatlantic trade accounted for the
rise of the American port cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Newport, and Charleston. These shipping centers gradually
came to provide the commercial services, such as insurance and wholesale
trade, and the small-scale industries, such as rope and sail manufacture
and shipbuilding, that were necessary to sustain a merchant fleet. The
independence movement began in these cities.
4. Social Divisions
Print section
The contrast between the rich and the poor was stark in the colonial
cities. In 1774 about 29 percent of the adult men in Boston possessed no
taxable property at all. These men were wage earners, working for
others. They lived in the back of shops, taverns, or rented rooms. Since
they had little or no property, they could not vote, and thus lacked
direct political power.
Next in social rank were the artisans and small shopkeepers.
Constituting almost half of a town's population, they owned about
one-third of the total wealth. Shopkeepers had once dominated town life,
but their political and social influence had waned with the rise of
wealthy merchants. Artisans feared a similar decline in their position;
the influx of British manufactures might destroy their small businesses,
reducing them to the status of propertyless wage laborers. As threatened
social groups, artisans and shopkeepers were vital to the revolutionary
upheaval. They took the strongest stand against the new British measures
of taxation and control. They also challenged the political domination
of the merchants and lawyers.
Urban merchants also played key leadership roles in American resistance.
By 1770 these men, about 10 percent of the taxpayers, owned from 50 to
60 percent of the total wealth of these towns. Their wealth also gave
them much prestige and enabled them, and their lawyer allies who handled
complex commercial transactions, to dominate political life.
The gap between rich and poor was much narrower in the farming regions
of the Northern colonies. However, even in rural communities, where most
Americans lived, social differences were increasing. Inequality was
especially apparent in areas where crops were raised for sale, rather
than just for subsistence. For example, in the Southern colonies, great
disparity existed between plantation farmers who grew rice and tobacco
on a large scale and family farmers who grew food to feed themselves. In
both the North and the South these differences divided farming
communities.
In 1775 it was not clear whether the many divisions within American
society�among racial and ethnic groups, religious denominations, and
social classes�and the fragmented character of colonial political
institutions would prevent a unified movement for independence. But it
was increasingly apparent that the battle with Britain for American home
rule would also involve a struggle among Americans over which people
would rule in the new country.
Page 1 of 10
See an outline for this article.
How to cite this article
� 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Article Topics
I.INTRODUCTION
II.THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1750
III.THE GREAT WAR FOR EMPIRE
IV.THE COMING OF THE REVOLUTION
V.THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
VI.THE NEW NATION: 1775-1789
VII.THE CREATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
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