Introduction
Even though the American War of Independence is often being discussed in terms of revolution, many modern historians point out at conceptual inconsistency of a claim that events, associated with the process of America gaining independence in the 18th century, can be referred to as truly revolutionary, since they did not affect fundamental principles, upon which American Society continues to be based, from the time when British settlers began colonizing New World.
For example, in his article “Empire – What Empire?”, Graham MacPhee suggests that there are no objective reasons to consider the American War of Independence as essentially revolutionary, rather than evolutionary: “What is referred to in Britain as the American War of Independence (1775-83), in the U.S. called the American Revolution or the Revolutionary War, casting it as a ‘revolution’ along the lines of the nearly contemporaneous revolutions in France and Haiti.
In 1776, thirteen British colonies in North America had thrown off the yoke of an invidious external despot George III and established new forms of popular government. Exactly how revolutionary such a political upheaval was is open to debate, especially for those excluded from the radical extension of the franchise ushered in by the Constitution of 1787 – namely slaves, Native Americans and women” (MacPhee 48). It is important to understand that, after America had gained independence from Britain, American citizens’ way of life did not undergo a dramatic transformation, in the metaphysical context of this word.
In fact, after Americans had realized themselves as belonging to a sovereign nation, their euro-centric perception of surrounding reality was even strengthened. Nowadays, not many people realize that one of the most intolerable “grievances”, on the part of British authorities, Americans considered these authorities’ lenient attitude towards Natives.
The close reading of the Declaration of Independence reveals it as essentially the legal instrument of insuring euro-centric cultural and racial homogeneity of the American nation: “He (King George III) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions” (Jefferson 1776). Therefore, it was not merely by accident that, during the American Revolutionary War, the overwhelming majority of American Natives sided themselves with Brits.
A Truly Revolutionary Event
Nevertheless, the claims that the American War of Independence represents a truly revolutionary event are not altogether deprived of rationale. It is not a secret that in time, preceding the War of Independence, it was named the most intellectually liberated and industrious Britons, who had immigrated to America. Upon making landfall in the New World, these people have gained an acute sense of freedom; therefore, it was only natural for them to rely on their own raison d’être, while facing existential challenges, instead of relying on the “word of authority” from distant Britain.
As time went by, the representatives of other European nations, such as Scotts and Irish, started to make their way into America, while being driven by exactly the same motivation – their innermost desire to escape political and spiritual oppression, closely associated with the realities of living in 17th-18th centuries Europe. Therefore, we can say that the American War of Independence was indeed a revolution, for as long as its global implications are being concerned – the process of America gaining independence from Britain had liberated White people’s existential psyche on a worldwide scale.
This is the reason why the rates of immigration to America have doubled, in years following the Proclamation of Independence in 1776. In this sense, American Revolutionary War can actually be compared to the French Revolution of 1792, which had liberated French citizens from aristocratic and clerical oppression and had firmly set France on the path of Industrialization.
In his article “The Legacy of Lafayette”, Nicholas Dungan quotes from the memories of one of the most famous French-Americans of all times – General de Lafayette: “Such a glorious cause (American War of Independence) had never before rallied the attention of mankind. Oppressors and oppressed would receive a powerful lesson; the great work would be accomplished or the rights of humanity would fall beneath its ruin… I gave my heart to the Americans and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my colors to theirs” (Dungan 30).
Nowadays, the practical effects of aristocratic and religious oppression, which dominated Europe’s political realities, throughout the centuries, are being often overlooked. However, it is namely due to this oppression that the bulk of Europe’s known history is now being referred to as the “Dark Ages”. For example, during the course of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), Europe’s population was being reduced by half, simply because Catholics believed in the existence of purgatory and Protestants did not. Therefore, it is not simply an accident that, within a matter of comparatively short time, European colonists managed to turn the New World into nothing short of a paradise on Earth – when being liberated of spiritual oppression; White men’s creative genius produces miracles.
The “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”, issued by Second Continental Congress on July 6, 1775, explicitly refers to citizens’ active stance in defending their civil rights and freedoms as the initial cause for The War of Independence: “Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labor, and an unconquerable spirit, they affected settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike barbarians” (Lillian Goldman Law Library 2008).
Nowadays, many historians and journalists tend to consider the Founding Fathers’ tendency to indulge in religious rhetoric, while defending the American nation’s right to sovereignty, as the proof of their intellectual narrow-mindedness. For example, in his article “Faith of Our Fathers”, Stanton Evans says: “If we examine some of the other Founders, we find their ranks so replete with Bible-believing Christians as to suggest that America at the epoch of the founding was a country awash in religious fervor” (Stanton 25).
We cannot agree with such a point of view, simply because Protestantism, like religion, has very little to do with the original spirit of Christianity. Protestants do not need God as their ultimate benefactor, but rather as some distant authority that does not intervene in their lives actively, as Protestants have grown to realize a very simple fact that material riches do not fall out of the sky and that one needs to work hard, in order to achieve financial prosperity.
This is the reason why, despite the Founding Fathers’ apparent piousness, they were much more concerned with the issue of freedom than with the issue of faith, thus proving their existential progressiveness. As history shows, while being put in a position of power, religious fanatics were never able to benefit their fellow citizens. Therefore, the very fact that after America had gained independence, this country began striving culturally, economically, and scientifically, while eventually turning into the world’s super-power, removes any doubts as to the revolutionary-progressive essence of War for Independence.
The revolution of evolution?
What differentiates the concept of revolution from the concept of evolution? It is the fact that, when applied to a particular society, the notion of revolution stands for drastic socio-political changes, which take place within such a society, throughout a very short time; whereas, the concept of evolution correspond to the same changes, but as such that occur over centuries and even millennia.
Therefore, there are many good reasons to think of the American War of Independence as having produced a revolutionary effect upon American society. In his book “Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776”, John Butler directly relates American society’s rapid cultural and technological progress, which became apparent, during the 19th century, to the fact that after 1776, Americans had realized themselves as being masters of their own destiny: “Politics quickly transcended its colonial heritage after 1776, not merely in the state constitutions and Federal Constitution of 1789 but in regional and national parties, and aggressive, the enthusiastic pursuit of democracy in the antebellum era. Urbanization, industrialization, and technological advance brought canals, steamships, railroads and electricity” (Butler 6).
It is important to understand that, even though American pre-revolutionary society was divided along social lines, just as it continues to be the case nowadays, society’s ethnocultural homogeneity provided an objective precondition for every American “rebel” to be instilled with the acute sense of national unity, regardless of its social and even racial affiliation. It is namely when people’s political convictions are being strong enough to prompt them to join a mass movement, as their foremost priority, that we can refer to such movement as revolutionary.
Brian Spina’s article “How Revolutionary was the American Revolution?”, stresses out the revolutionary nature of events, associated with the American War for Independence: “Was the evolution of society great enough to constitute a revolution? In Andre Bassett’s 1776 drawing La Destruction de la Statue Royale a Nouvelle Yorck, many clues to the answer may be noticed by an observant eye. The drawing has portrayed the destruction of a statue of King George III of England during the revolution. People of all different sorts are banned together, destroying the monument. Blacks, Whites, Women, Men, Rich, & Poor- all united for a common cause, for freedom” (Spina 2008).
Some naïve people, who nevertheless strive to pose as “sophisticates”, suggest that the American Revolutionary War was being inspired by purely mercantile considerations, on the part of King George III subjects – namely, their unwillingness to pay high taxes. And, to substantiate the validity of such their suggestion, they refer to a so-called Boston Tea Party of 1773, which prompted the British monarch to consider undertaking rather drastic measures, while dealing with “treacherous peasants”.
Apparently, it never occurred to these people, that citizens’ refusal to pay taxes actually represents a revolutionary act, on their part, because by doing it, they actively deny the legitimacy of governmental authority. This is the reason why in even contemporary America, tax evasion is considered to be one of the worst crimes. The article “Little Known Facts about the American Revolutionary War”, available on the Official Website of the State of Delaware, provides us with insight into the fact that the participants of the Boston Tea Party could not possibly be concerned about British taxes, as such that were intolerably undermining colonists’ financial well-being: “The Americans of 1776 had the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World.
Farmers, lawyers, and business owners in the Colonies were thriving, with some plantation owners and merchants making the equivalent of $500,000 a year. Times were good for many others too” (State of Delaware Official Website 2009). In other words, there can be only one truly universal explanation for the fact that, during the 18th century’s seventies, more and more American colonists were willingly distancing themselves from the Crown – their budding sense of freedom and their growing awareness of civil rights and freedoms as such that represent a foremost value.
Conclusion
Therefore, the American War of Independence serves as another proof as to the fact that such rights and freedoms can never be given, but only taken with the mean of violence, which is why it is absolutely appropriate to refer to this War as to what it really was – a classical revolutionary event of utter historical importance.
Bibliography
Butler, John 2001. “Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776”. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Dungan, Nicholas “The Legacy of Lafayette”. USA Today. 136, (2007): 30-3.
MacPhee, Graham “Empire – What Empire?”. History Today. (58)11, (2008): 46-9.
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. [1775] 2008. Yale Law School. Lillian Goldman Law Library. Web.
Evans, Stanton “Faith of Our Fathers”. The American Spectator. (40)1, (2007): 22-6.
Jefferson, Thomas “The Declaration of Independence”. 1776. Archiving Early America. Web.
Little Known Facts about the American Revolutionary War. 2009. The Official Website of the State of Delaware. Web.
Spina, Brian “How Revolutionary was the American Revolution?”. 2008. Associated Content. Web.