American Revolution
The American Revolution has been traditionally studied as a single, unified movement of colonial forces fighting against the imperial British. As well as this description makes for a nice grade school story, it is important to understand that in the course of several years that composed the latter half of the eighteenth century, America underwent two revolutions. These two revolutions were dramatically different, yet uniquley simmilar. The primary revolution, which I will refer to as the Imperial revolution, was simmilar to the old stories of poorly trained colonists facing the largest imperial army in the world, the British. This Imperial revolution was an intense battle that began in the ports of Boston and ended in the fields of Yorktown. While this military battle ensued, a greater cause championed the revolutionary leaders. Early forms of republicanism emerged in the early 18th century when after the collapse of Catholicism, English philosophers began to reflect upon the !first of the great republics in Rome and Greece. This evaluation of the history of these two empires created and propelled republicanism into a revolutionary context. For the first time in modern history, the ideas of the old republics were being studied,
f discipline hindered any hopes of an immediate organized front. However, people had an innate sense to prove their virtue to society, reflective of the uprising of republicanism, and were willing to die in combat. This sense of a purpose to fight succeeded in holding off the British as the troops held Boston. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Republicanism captivatyed the hearts and minds of colonists just when the time was right for a change. It has been argued that the Imperial Revolution spawed the Ideological one, or that the war bred republicanism, rather than the war resulting from it. I argue that it would be impossible to have the military successes witnessed during the Imperial Revolution if republicanism was not already present. The will of the people to fight was composed up of two primary attititudes. The individual belief that dying in combat was an illustration of their devotion to liberty and virtue was a terribly important assett to the success of the military campagin. Without determination like this, and without a cause as important as this, the will of the soldiers to fight would have been either small or non existant. We see this when we study the reasons why the British lost the war, primarily because they were fighting for no cause but because that is why they were being paid. The majority of ! The Imperial conflict was an important rejection of English imperialism by the colonies, and, as the dictionary defines ³Revolution², was an ³overthrow...of one ruler or government and substitution of another by the governed.² This concludes that the Imperial conflict was a true, independent revolution. But, as the dictionary also states, ³[A revolution can be a] sudden, radical and complete change.² This can only conclude that the relatively swift rejection, (under twenty five years), of a specific society by repubicansim was a true revolution because it replaced the old world order with a new one. Culture and society was changed, and republicanism was the reason why. It would be unfair to include the Imperial and the Ideological Revolution as one occurrence, because the different paths both have taken represents different revolutions. Consequently, it must be understood that American society transformed itself in the 18th century into a counter culure society that rejected a! When George Washington took control of the Continental Army in 1775, he began to be looked at as the pure representation of republicansim. His simple beliefs of the merit system and the representation of the new common citizen were appealing to the colonists. The belief of a system of merit was revolutionary in itself, for the past centuries of aristrocracy negated any such system. By the time Thomas Paine published his pamphlet ³Common Sense² in 1776, colonists were already assuming the roles of patriots of republicanism. Pain had noticed an American, (or colonial), identity beign formed. His writings inspired the colonists to convert their society from an English dominated rusitc world to a new America, filled with leaders of republicanism and freedom. By July of 1776, almost every colonistsıs blood pumped full of red hot republicanism. Before the Imperial conflict, the Ideological revolution began to take a primitive shape. A weak republican virtue was created from the philosphers and politcal scientists of 18th century Britain when after the years of religous wars, a broader enlightenment of Europe occurred. Republican thought of ancient Roman and Greek society dominated the 18th century world. Virute became an essential element of society, and consideration of the greater good domimated interpretation. This firestorm of ideas began to spread to the colonists when critics of colonial society began to write about this new found idea of republicanism. A new world view had been created and people began to obessess with the new republic. The simple agrarian farmer of colonial America consider
Some common words found in the essay are:
Imperial Revolution, Decleration Independence, American Revolution, Seven War, Lexington Concord, King Britain, Rome Greece, Roman Greek, Continental Army, British Imperial, imperial revolution, imperial conflict, american revolution, colonial society, decleration independence, 18th century, american society, revolution american, south carolina, ideological revolution, american revolution imperial, revolution imperial conflict,
Approximate Word count = 2754
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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