The American Revolution (1765–1789) was a political movement in the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain. It began as a rebellion and turned into a revolution eventually creating the sovereign United States, which was the outcome of the associated American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The Second Continental Congress, as the provisional government, established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, the Congress passed the Lee Resolution on July 2nd and unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain, but a 1781 victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the Fox–North coalition in government to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American sovereignty, which was formalized in the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. The Constitution took effect in 1789 and the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.
Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the French and Indian War, which ended in 1763. Although the colonies had fought and supported the war directly, the British Parliament imposed new taxes, ostensibly to compensate for wartime costs, and transferred control of the colonies' western lands to British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened in New York City for the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. Its declaration argued that taxation without representation and other policies violated their rights as Englishmen. In 1767, though the Stamp Act was repealed, tensions increased again following Parliament's passing of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed British troops to the colony of Massachusetts, where there was a conflict in the 1770 Boston Massacre. In December 1773, the local faction of the Sons of Liberty orchestrated the Boston Tea Party, during which they dumped chests of taxed tea owned by the British East India Company into the Boston Harbor. Parliament responded by enacting a series of punitive laws, called the Intolerable Acts. These were intended to end self-government in Massachusetts but instead increased American support for revolution.
In 1774, 12 of the Thirteen Colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress (the Province of Georgia joined in 1775). The First Continental Congress began coordinating Patriot resistance through underground networks of committees largely built on the foundations of the Sons of Liberty network. In August 1775, King George III proclaimed Massachusetts to be in rebellion. The British attempted to disarm the colonists, resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, starting the Revolutionary War. The Second Continental Congress convened in May of 1775 and created the Continental Army, which then surrounded Boston, forcing the British to withdraw by sea in March 1776 and leaving Patriots in control in every colony. In May 1776, Congress voted to suppress all forms of Crown authority to be replaced by locally created authority, and each colony created a state constitution. On July 2, the Congress passed the Lee Resolution, affirming their support for joint independence. On July 4, 1776, they unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, basing the new nation on the revolutionary concept of protecting and guaranteeing inalienable rights and proclaiming that "all men are created equal". After that, Congress began drafting the Articles of Confederation, an effort to establish a multi-state self-governing coordinating body capable of negotiating international treaties and prosecuting the war.
The Revolutionary War continued for another seven years, during which France eventually entered. On September 28, 1781, Washington commanded the Continental Army's capture of a British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown, leading to the collapse of King George's control of Parliament. Consensus in Parliament soon shifted to the war ending on American terms. On September 3, 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris, recognizing the sovereign independence of the United States, and ceding to the new nation nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. The United States became the first nation to establish a federal republic with a written constitution based on the principles of universal natural rights, consent of the governed, and equality under the law, although with significant democratic limitations compared to later evolution of the concept.
Origins
After the Glorious Revolution in England, the British adopted a policy of "salutary neglect," whereby the Thirteen Colonies were largely left to govern themselves. As a result of this new policy, as well as the ideals of liberty which had been borne out of the Glorious Revolution, there emerged new government systems (as exemplified by William Penn's Frame of Government of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Charter of 1691); religious institutions (as exemplified by the democratic nature of Congregational Protestantism in New England and the First Great Awakening across the colonies); and occasionally, attitudes towards slavery (as exemplified by Massachusetts and, at least initially, Georgia banning the practice), although the latter of these was less common. This British policy reverted significantly after the French and Indian War. The British political establishment, especially after taking massive swathes of land from the former territories of New France, pursued a policy of greater control over colonial affairs, prompting the Thirteen Colonies to seek restoration of greater autonomy from Britain. One Patriot, Capt. Levi Preston of Danvers, Massachusetts, was asked why the Americans rebelled against England, and he responded: "...we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride, 163–4, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1994..
1651–1763: Evolution of colonial policy
Development of colonial self-government
The Thirteen Colonies were established in the 17th century as part of the English Empire and became parts of the British Empire after the union of England and Scotland in 1707.
The development of a unique American identity can be traced to the English Civil War (1642–1651) and its aftermath. In that period the Puritan colonies of New England supported the Commonwealth government responsible for the execution of King Charles I. After the Stuart Restoration of 1660, Massachusetts did not recognize Charles II as the legitimate king for more than a year after his coronation. In King Philip's War (1675–1678), the New England colonies fought a coalition of a few Native American tribes without military assistance from England, thereby contributing to the development of a uniquely American identity separate from that of the British people.
In the 1680s, Charles and his brother, James II, attempted to bring New England under direct English control. The colonists fiercely opposed this, and the Crown nullified their colonial charters in response. In 1686, James finalized these efforts by consolidating the separate New England colonies along with New York and New Jersey into the Dominion of New England. Edmund Andros was appointed royal governor and tasked with governing the new Dominion under his direct rule. Colonial assemblies and town meetings were restricted, new local taxes were levied, and rights were abridged. Dominion rule triggered bitter resentment throughout New England. When James tried to rule without Parliament, the English aristocracy removed him from power in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This was followed by the 1689 Boston revolt, which overthrew Dominion rule. Colonial governments reasserted their control after the revolt. The new monarchs, William and Mary, granted new charters to the individual New England colonies.
After the Glorious Revolution, the British Empire became a constitutional monarchy with sovereignty in the King-in-Parliament. Aristocrats inherited seats in the House of Lords, while the gentry and merchants controlled the elected House of Commons. The king ruled through cabinet ministers who depended on majority support in the Commons to govern effectively. British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic proudly claimed that the unwritten British constitution, with its guarantees of the rights of Englishmen, protected personal liberty better than any other government.
The British constitution served as the model for colonial governments. The Crown appointed a royal governor in each colony to exercise executive power, usually also appointing a Governor's Council largely to act as an unelected upper chamber of the legislature. Property owners elected a colonial assembly amongst themselves with powers to legislate and levy taxes, but the British government reserved the right to veto colonial legislation.
The British government lacked the resources and information necessary for close supervision of the colonies. Instead, British officials negotiated and compromised with colonial leaders to gain compliance with imperial policies. The colonies defended themselves with provincial troops and colonial militias of locals, and the British government rarely sent military forces to America before 1755. According to historian Robert Middlekauff, "Americans had become almost completely self-governing" before the American Revolution, a practice that was consistent with the British monarchy's practice of salutary neglect.
Mercantilism
British colonial policy was based on mercantilist theory, which held that Britain's national security depended on building a self-sufficient empire and controlling key trade routes. The purpose of colonies was to produce raw materials for Britain's use, consume British manufactures, and support the growth of British shipping. In the 1600s, the English Parliament enacted a series of laws called the Navigation Acts to ensure that the colonies fulfilled these purposes.
The Navigation Acts restricted colonial trade with foreign countries. The Thirteen Colonies could trade with the rest of the empire but only ship certain commodities like tobacco to Britain. Any European imports bound for British America had to first pass through an English port and pay customs duties. Other laws regulated developing colonial industries to prevent competition with British industries, such as the Wool Act 1698, the Hat Act 1731, and the Iron Act 1750.Max Savelle, Empires to Nations: Expansion in America, 1713–1824, p. 93 (1974) With little industry except shipbuilding, the colonies exported agricultural products in return for manufactured goods. They also imported molasses, rum, and sugar from the British West Indies.
Colonial reactions to these policies were mixed. The Molasses Act 1733, for example, placed a duty of six pence per gallon upon foreign molasses imported into the colonies. This act was particularly egregious to the New England colonists, who protested it as unconstitutional taxation without representation in the British parliament. The act increased the smuggling of foreign molasses, and the British government ceased enforcement efforts after the 1740s.
On the other hand, certain merchants and local industries benefited from the restrictions on foreign competition. The limits on foreign-built ships greatly benefited the colonial shipbuilding industry, particularly in New England. Some argue that the economic impact was minimal on the colonists, but the political friction that the acts triggered was more serious, as the merchants most directly affected were also the most politically active.
British military presence after 1754