THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492-1877

LECTURE FOURTHE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND

WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

AMERICAN SOCIETY AT THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION

• 1775 An overall crisis• Causes:• inconsistent colonial administration• collapse of colonial governments• economic uncertainties, lack of taxes or

governmental income

AMERICAN SOCIETY AT THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION

• A divided society• 2/5: active supporters of the revolution

Patriots: commercial, land holding elite,Yeoman farmers,Chesapeake gentry

• Elected office holders, artisans• 1/5 Loyalists: Merchants doing business with

Britain, Anglican clergy, Scots, Back country southerners

• 2/5 Neutrals: Quakers, Scotch-Irish

THE LEGAL CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND

• -Colonists’ appeal to the British Constitution• demanding the Rights of Englishmen• the view that Parliament is only authorized to

regulate trade, not raise revenue• Dominion theory: colonists swore oath to the

king, thus not bound by Parliament• Parliamentary acts violated colonials’ natural

rights

THE LEGAL CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND

• Differences in political philosophy, differences in government

• political representation: virtual vs. direct• question of popular sovereignty• colonists- people• Britain-Parliament• Constitution• Colonial: written, based on charters, covenants• British: oral, based on tradition

THE LEGAL CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND

• The Declaration of Independence• justifies the revolution to the whole world• propaganda measure• a legal brief, demonstrating the violations of

colonists’ natural rights• -dissolving colonial legislature• -keeping an army in America• -paralyzing colonial trade• -taxation without consent

The Declaration of Independence

• In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776,• The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united STATES of AMERICA,

• When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

POLITICAL AND MILITARY EVENTS

• At the eve of the Revolution • Britain has the advantage: professional army,

32,000 troops, 9,000 Hessians,13,000 sailors, 73 warships

• Colonials: 16,000 soldiers, irregular army• Previous forms of resistance, peaceful• Homespun against British finery, Coffee vs.tea• Colonial virtue and modesty vs.British decadence

POLITICAL AND MILITARY EVENTS

• George Washington (43)• Military experience, professional soldier• Irregulars are turned into the Continental

Army• “grace under pressure”

GEORGE WASHINGTON

DIFFERING STRATEGIES

• British strategy: • Reliance on the professional army• Capturing major cities• Achieving a decisive first victory, and colonials

would surrender• American strategy: • Avoiding open battle, guerilla warfare

BATTLE OF SARATOGA

MAJOR MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS

• 1775 April, Lexington, Concord• 1776 July 4 Declaration of Independence• Winter of 1776 Valley Forge , General Von

Steuben• 1777 Battle of Saratoga• Franco-American Alliance• 1778 France enters the war

MAJOR MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS

• Southern theatre: British victories at Charleston, Savannah

• British cannot hold on to the conquered territory

• American guerilla leaders: Francis Marion (Swamp Fox),Thomas Sumter (Game Cock)

• 1781 Oct 17, Yorktown

THE TREATY OF PARIS 1783

• Britain recognizes U.S.• Florida is given to Spain• U.S. promises to compensate Loyalists for

confiscated property• End of slavery in the North

CAUSES OF THE BRITISH LOSS

• Underestimation of the enemy• Bad military leadership• Washington’s leadership• Success of American foreign policy• Inability to deal with guerilla warfare• Inability to hold on to conquered territories

THE LEGACY OF THE REVOLUTION

• The revolution of the elite• Oedipal revolution• The birth of liberal capitalism • 1776: Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations• Contributes to the worldwide disintegration of

feudalism