In 1620 a ship ‘Mayflower’ with the first colonists on board docked on the coast of the New World land. They left their Motherland in search of place where their religious views would not be suppressed and where they could love according to their own code of morality. And ever since no matter what the settlers did, their strivings were aimed to gain full independence from Britain.
There had always been conflicts, but in 1775 the wish to separate backed with strong sense of national identity and to create new democratic and free country reached its climax. The years 1775-1783 are known as the American Revolution in the world history (McNeese).
Firstly, it is necessary to mention some significant reasons that led to the explosion. In 1767 the British Parliament passed a Townshend Act, which put the new unreasonably high taxes on paper, glass and tea. The colonialists found it unfair to pay them as this was not a single one obligation towards the British Government. A conflict broke out in April 1775 in Lexington and the next day in Concord, which became a reason for the large-scale war for Independence to emerge.
Americans wanted to create free, equal and independent society and the first step to achieve the objective was signing the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776, where the first thing stated was that all men were created equal. From that moment thirteen colonial states were proclaimed free from the British domain. Though not possessing a real power, this document broke ties with Britain, thus fulfilling one of the main goals to achieve in this war. The process of becoming independent was completed by the proclamation of the Independence on 4 July, 1776. The key battles of Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1783 defined the outcome of the Revolution (AP U.S. History).
Revolutionaries took Lock’s philosophy of freedom and equality as their main principles to fight for. The philosopher insisted on the individual rights be more important than the group’s interests. Undoubtedly, these eight years changed drastically people’s minds as the new implemented notions as liberty, equality, individuality were not familiar to them. Another example of reaching the target was the democratically elected government. Now people were given the unheard of before right to choose authorities they want to see being free and unprejudiced in their choice. Thus, the first democratic elections had been held.
And finally, the concept of equality can be vividly observed in liberalization of women’s position in society. Being completely dependent on a husband and tied with social restrictions, a woman changed her role. Republican ideology accepted the role of mother to be essentially significant in bringing up decent citizen of the new country. From that time on, women gained certain social liberty i.e. having the ability to get a divorce and take control of former husband’s possessions, being able to regulate the amount of discretion given to a child, in other words, it was no necessity to stick to common rules while bringing up children (The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence).
However, an ideal cannot be achieved at once and the idea of free, independent and democratic society imagined by the revolutionaries had its certain incompleteness. The main problem they faced with became the issues of mentality on the one hand and tradition on the other. The way of thinking cannot be changed overnight and the situation with women can give the proof. In spite of the renovated role of a woman and some given freedoms, they still found themselves subordinate position in both economic and social ways. The opportunity of being a breadwinner remained unreachable and the only freedom they had was choosing a spouse and developing creative methods of giving a child education and conveying him personal experience.
Besides, the Declaration stated that all men were free and equal regardless their social position. The Black people, slaves, were not taken in consideration as slavery was a part of the tradition taken for granted. Thus, it can be concluded that Black population was not seen as people with rights and feelings of their own, what contradicted the statement.
Thus, American Revolution (1775-1783) aiming at creating equal, free and independent society put the world upside-down having introduced the new concept and for the first time querying objectivity of being subordinate to the monarch. Revolutionaries partially succeeded in reaching their goals, having proclaimed the Independence of the thirteen states on the basis of John Lock’s philosophy of equality. However, the serious liberation of some spheres as political in terms of elections and social in terms of women’s rights could not change the mentality of people who got used to traditions. In other words, the process of creating a new democratic society in the new democratic country was launched after the Revolution but was not accomplished immediately by the end of the eighteenth century.
Works cited
AP U.S. History. ‘The Revolutionary War’. 19 December 2013.
<http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/the-revolutionary-war/>
Tim McNeese. ‘Revolutionary War’. Lorenz Educational Press, 2003. Print
The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence. Library of America,
2001. Print
