The American Revolution: Moment in American History

The American Revolution: Moment in American History

The American Revolution

The American revolution is a defining moment in American history: it is the period during which the colonies rebelled against the British Crown and declared themselves “free and independent states”.. This is what was proclaimed on July 4, 1776, in a founding text known as the Declaration of Independence.. It presents the ideals and the grievances that justified the British American colonists’ revolution against their mother country, and subsequently became a model for many other countries aspiring to independence from colonial control, while its rhetoric continues to pervade American discourse. The military expression of the revolution was the American war of independence, which started in 1775 and ended seven years later with the Treaty of Paris of 1783 (signed on September 3), through which Britain acknowledged the United States as an independent nation. By the end of the revolution, the former colonies had officially become the “United States of America,” which also means the former colonists identified as Americans, the citizens of a new Republic.
This period of US history can be viewed in various ways which are not necessarily contradictory, but which stress different aspects of the event. To sum up, two main views can be considered: some historians stress the division and conflicts of that period, while others stress its vision and consensus. In fact, the American revolution was the expression of both these phenomena. It is true that revolutionary America was divided in many ways: there was division between the colonists and Britain, but also among the various colonies themselves (especially the Northern and the Southern colonies); between rich and poor; between whites and blacks; etc. At the same time, the independence movement was the expression of a people, that is to say it reflected a certain degree of consensus. It also put forward some principles which served to found the nation and have since then acquired mythical...

Similar Essays