American Revolution

Between the years 1765 and 1791, a political and intellectual upheaval known as the American Revolution took place in the territory formerly known as British America. After winning independence from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and establishing the constitution that established the United States of America as the first modern constitutional liberal democracy, the people of the Thirteen Colonies of the United States of America established independent states and used those states to defeat the British in that war.

The American colonists took exception to the fact that they were had to pay taxes to the British Parliament, which was an institution in which they did not have a voice. Before the 1760s, the American colonies that had been established by Britain had a considerable amount of autonomy in the management of their internal affairs. At that time, colonial legislatures were responsible for overseeing these matters. However, during the decade of the 1760s, the British Parliament passed a number of acts with the intention of bringing the American colonies under a more direct rule from the British metropole and increasing the degree to which the economies of the colonies and Britain were intertwined. These acts include the Stamp Act, the Navigation Act, and the Trade Act. The imposition of internal taxes on official documents, periodicals, and the majority of goods produced in the colonies as a result of the enactment of the Stamp Act of 1765 resulted in protests from the colonies and the gathering of delegates from many colonies at the Stamp Act Congress. After the British government repealed the Stamp Act, tensions eased somewhat; however, tensions quickly returned after the Townshend Acts were passed in 1767. In 1768, in an effort to put an end to the disturbance in Boston, the British government sent soldiers there. This ultimately led to the Boston Massacre in 1770. The majority of the Townshend charges were eliminated by the British government in 1770; however, the tax on tea was kept in place in order to symbolically reaffirm Parliament's authority to tax the colonies. A new level of tension was reached with the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, the enactment of the Tea Act of 1773, and the subsequent Boston Tea Party in December 1773, all of which led to the same end. In response, the British authorities sealed off Boston Harbor and passed a number of repressive measures, which had the effect of revoking the rights of self-government that the Massachusetts Bay Colony had previously enjoyed. The other colonies banded together in support of Massachusetts, and by the end of 1774, twelve of the thirteen colonies had dispatched delegates to Philadelphia in order to establish a Continental Congress and coordinate their struggle against Britain. Colonists who remained loyal to the Crown were referred to as "Loyalists" or "Tories," while those who opposed Britain were referred to as "Patriots" or "Whigs."

In opposition to monarchical and aristocratic forms of government, the leadership of the Patriot movement adhered to the political tenets of liberalism and republicanism. Even though it was stated in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. These groups had been historically excluded from the rights to vote and hold public office.

The American Revolution was important because it led to the independence of the United States and the end of British mercantilism in America. As a consequence, the United States was able to engage in commerce with countries all over the globe, including resuming trade with Britain. It is estimated that around 60,000 Loyalists moved to other British colonies, most notably Canada; nonetheless, the vast majority of Loyalists stayed in the United States. The people of the United States quickly came to a consensus on the United States Constitution, which served to supplant the feeble wartime Confederation and set up a relatively robust national government in the form of a federal republic. This national government was comprised of an elected executive, a national judiciary, and an elected bicameral Congress that represented the states in the Senate and the population in the House of Representatives. Additionally, there was a national government that was structured as a federal republic. It is the first federal democratic republic ever established in the world with the permission of the people being ruled. Shortly after, the first ten amendments, which comprised the Bill of Rights, were approved, protecting a variety of essential rights that were invoked as reason for the revolution.