The
American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of
the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined
together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the
United States of America. They first rejected the authority of the
Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without
representation, and then expelled all royal officials. By 1774 each
colony had established a Provincial Congress, or an equivalent
governmental institution, to form individual self-governing states, but
still within the empire. The British responded by sending combat troops
to re-impose direct rule. Through representatives sent in 1775 to the
Second Continental Congress, the new states joined together at first to
defend their respective self-governance and manage the armed conflict
against the British known as the American Revolutionary War (1775–83,
also American War of Independence). Ultimately, the states collectively
determined that the British monarchy, by acts of tyranny, could no
longer legitimately claim their allegiance. They then severed ties with
the British Empire in July 1776, when the Congress issued the United
States Declaration of Independence, rejecting the monarchy on behalf of
the new sovereign nation separate and external to the British Empire.
The war ended with effective American victory in October 1781, followed
by formal British abandonment of any claims to the United States with
the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
The American Revolution was the result of a series of social, political,
and intellectual transformations in early American society and
government, collectively referred to as the American Enlightenment.
Americans rejected the oligarchies common in aristocratic Europe at the
time, championing instead the development of republicanism based on the
Enlightenment understanding of liberalism. Among the significant results
of the revolution was the creation of a democratically-elected
representative government responsible to the will of the people.
However, sharp political debates erupted over the appropriate level of
democracy desirable in the new government, with a number of Founders
fearing mob rule.
Many fundamental issues of national governance were settled with the
ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, which replaced
the relatively weaker first attempt at a national government adopted in
1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. In contrast to
the loose confederation, the Constitution established a strong federated
government. The United States Bill of Rights (1791), comprising the
first 10 constitutional amendments, quickly followed. It guaranteed many
"natural rights" that were influential in justifying the revolution,
and attempted to balance a strong national government with relatively
broad personal liberties. The American shift to liberal republicanism,
and the gradually increasing democracy, caused an upheaval of
traditional social hierarchy and gave birth to the ethic that has formed
a core of political values in the United States. A bit of a read but the most extensive I could get.
