Emergence of USA - American Revolution; American Civil War

 American Revolution was a political upheaval during which colonists in the Thirteen North American Colonies of Great Britain rejected the British monarchy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. 

The American Revolution was the result of a series of social, political, and intellectual transformations in American society, government and ways of thinking.

The famous European explorers came from England, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France and made colonies in America

The first 13 Colonies were established consisting of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Bay Colony (which included Maine), New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The story of the Colonization of America starts, and ends, at this point in time 

By the mid-1700s, colonists had been living in America for nearly 150 years. Each of the 13 colonies had its own government, and people were used to a great degree of independence. Colonists saw themselves less as British and more as Virginians or Pennsylvanians. However, they were still British subjects and were expected to obey British law.

 In 1651, the British Parliament passed a trade law called the Navigation Act. This and subsequent trade laws prevented colonists from selling their most valuable products to any country except Britain. In addition, colonists had to pay high taxes on imported French and Dutch goods.

Britain bought American raw materials for low prices and sold manufactured goods to the colonists. And despite various British trade restrictions, colonial merchants also thrived. Such a spirit of relative harmony, however, soon would change.

In 1754, war erupted on the North American continent between the English and the French. As you recall, the French had also colonized parts of North America throughout the 1600s and 1700s. The conflict was known as the French and Indian War. (The name stems from the fact that the French enlisted numerous Native American tribes to fight on their side.) The fighting lasted until 1763, when Britain and her colonists emerged victorious—and seized nearly all French land in North America.

No Taxation without Representation The victory, however, only led to growing tensions between Britain and its colonists. In order to fight the war, Great Britain had run up a huge debt. Because American colonists benefited from Britain’s victory, Britain expected the colonists to help pay the costs of the war. In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. According to this law, colonists had to pay a tax to have an official stamp put on wills, deeds, newspapers, and other printed material 

American colonists were outraged. They had never paid taxes directly to the British government before. Colonial lawyers argued that the stamp tax violated colonists’ natural rights, and they accused the government of “taxation without representation.” In Britain, citizens consented to taxes through their representatives in Parliament. The colonists, however, had no representation in Parliament. Thus, they argued they could not be taxed.

Boston Tea Party Growing Hostility Leads to War Over the next decade, hostilities between the two sides increased. Some colonial leaders favoured independence from Britain. In 1773, to protest an import tax on tea, a group of colonists dumped a large load of British tea into Boston Harbour. George III, infuriated by the “Boston Tea Party,” as it was called, ordered the British navy to close the port of Boston.

First Continental Congress Such harsh tactics by the British made enemies of many moderate colonists. In September 1774, representatives from every colony except Georgia gathered in Philadelphia to form the First Continental Congress. This group protested the treatment of Boston. When the king paid little attention to their complaints, the colonies decided to form the Second Continental Congress to debate their next move

The Land Rents The English aristocrats bought land to the west of colonies. And they got rents from farmers who cultivated the lands and also issued a proclamation to prevent colonists from moving west into new lands. This move angered the colonists.

Intolerable Acts The British government responded by passing several Acts which came to be known as the Intolerable Acts, which further darkened colonial opinion towards the British.

: • The Massachusetts Government Act, altered the Massachusetts charter and restricted town meetings.

 • The Administration of Justice Act, ordered that all British soldiers to be tried in Britain, not in the colonies. It put an end to the constitution of Massachusetts 

• The Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party.

 • The Quartering Act, which allowed royal governors to house British troops in the homes of citizens without requiring permission of the owner. 

• The Quebec Act was designed to extend the boundaries of Quebec and guaranteed religious freedom to Catholic Canadians.

Thomas Paine forcefully supported the independence of colonies, who detested the inequalities of English society, and had come to America. In a pamphlet entitled Common Sense, he wrote, ‘It was repugnant to reason to suppose that this continent can long remain subject to any external power…there is something absurd in supposing a Continent to be perpetually governed by an island’.

 The philosophies of other English philosophers— Locke, Harrington, Milton—believed that men had certain fundamental rights which no government had the right to infringe, had been the source of inspiration for the revolution.

The War of Independence : 

The British were not about to let their colonies leave without a fight. 

Shortly after the publication of the Declaration of Independence, 

the two sides went to war. 

At first glance, the colonists seemed destined to go down in quick defeat. \

Washington’s ragtag, poorly trained army faced the well-trained forces of the most powerful country in the world. 

In the end, however, the Americans won their war for independence. George Washington was put in command of the American forces. 

The first battles took place in and around Boston. 

Then English sent a force to Canada with the plan to march it south to meet another English force, and so cut the American colonies in half. 

Several reasons explain the colonists’ success. 

First, the Americans’ motivation for fighting was much stronger than that of the British, since their army was defending their homeland.

 Second, the overconfident British generals made several mistakes.

 Third, time itself was on the side of the Americans. The British could win battle after battle, as they did, and still lose the war. Fighting an overseas war, 3,000 miles from London, was terribly expensive. After a few years, tax-weary British citizens called for peace. 

Finally, the Americans did not fight alone. Louis XVI of France had little sympathy for the ideals of the American Revolution. However, he was eager to weaken France’s rival, Britain. French entry into the war in 1778 was decisive. 

In 1781, combined forces of about 9,500 Americans and 7,800 French trapped a British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis near Yorktown, Virginia. 

Unable to escape, Cornwallis eventually surrendered. 

The Americans had shocked the world and won their independence.

Two years later, in 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the English recognized the independence of its 13 former colonies.

all 13 states ratified a constitution in 1781. This plan of government was known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles established the United States as a republic, a government in which citizens rule through elected representatives.

To protect their authority, the 13 states created a loose confederation in which they held most of the power. Thus, the Articles of Confederation deliberately created a weak national government. There were no executive or judicial branches. Instead, the Articles established only one body of government, the Congress. Each state, regardless of size, had one vote in Congress. Congress could declare war, enter into treaties, and coin money. It had no power, however, to collect taxes or regulate trade. Passing new laws was difficult because laws needed the approval of 9 of the 13 states.

A New Constitution Colonial leaders eventually recognized the need for a strong national government. In February 1787, Congress approved a Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention held its first session on May 25, 1787. The 55 delegates were experienced statesmen who were familiar with the political theories of Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau 

Like Montesquieu, the delegates distrusted a powerful central government controlled by one person or group. They therefore established three separate branches—legislative, executive, and judicial. This setup provided a built-in system of checks and balances, with each branch checking the actions of the other two. For example, the president received the power to veto legislation passed by Congress. However, the Congress could override a presidential veto with the approval of two-thirds of its members.

THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION

• Identity of “American”- individualism; diversity 

• No aristocratic titles of nobility 

• Social mobility 

• Westward migration encouraged 

• Separation of church and state 

• Issues involving women’s rights and slavery continued

• Increased importance of education to democracy

• Establishment of the first republican democracy after overthrowing a European empire served as a model for other colonies. 
• • Inspired future revolutions like French Revolution, Russian Revolution, Haitian Revolution, Latin American war of Independence. 
• • Democratic ideals of the revolution inspired changes in position of women in the society with the fading ideal of patriarchy, liberalising women. 
• • Bill of rights enshrined in the American Constitution (first written constitution) gave way to the idea of fundamental rights. 

How did the American Revolution influence the French Revolution? 

When American colonists won independence from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, the French, who participated in the war themselves, were both close allies and key participants. 

There were similar causes for both revolutions. 

Economic struggles: Both the Americans and French dealt with a taxation system they found discriminating and unfair. 

Additionally, France’s involvement in the American Revolution, along with extravagant spending practices by King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, left the country on the verge of bankruptcy. 

Royal absolutism: While colonists revolted against the British monarchy, 

the French aimed to reform the absolute rule of Louis XVI. 

Unequal rights: Like the American colonists, the French felt that specific rights were only granted to certain segments of society, namely the elite and aristocrats. 

Enlightenment philosophy was a major influence. One key ideological movement, known as Enlightenment, was central to the American uprising. 

Enlightenment stressed the idea of natural rights and equality for all citizens.

1. What do you understand by the term ‘enlightenment’ in the historical context? What were the core concepts that drove enlightenment in Europe? Discuss

• Truth can be discovered only by using logic and providing proof 

• Scientific and rational thought will lead to an improved human existence

 

2. What is ‘Scientific Revolution’? When did it take place? Why? Also discuss the contribution of famous personalities during this phase of history

It refers to the era where the focus from God shifted towards human kind and their power to reason. The use of reason, which bought transformation, marked the beginning of scientific revolution. 

Scientific Revolution was a phase during which the flawed concepts established by the Church regarding physical events were replaced by hypotheses that could be verified through experiments.

Scientific Revolution: works of Astronomers and Mathematicians such as Kepler, Galileo and Newton. Their ideas got diffused in Europe and seriously challenged the conventional ideas of those days

1) Helios-centric Theory of Copernicus stating sun is at the centre of solar system defied the pre-existing exact opposite views. 

2) Telescope by Galileo expanded knowledge about space.

 3) Gravitational Law of Newton 

4) Kepler finding about the elliptical path of the planets that clarified different seasons

1. Examine the issues involved in the American Civil War. Was it a contest between two separate nations?

The American Civil War

 There were differences between states in the north and states in the south – which resulted in the American Civil War.

The difference in the attitude towards slavery can be seen as the root cause of the American Civil War. This had repercussions in the economic and political sphere too. The factors which led to the outbreak of the Civil War in America can be consolidated as below.

1. Economic Disparity between Northern and Southern States

• Northern states were industrialized while southern states where primarily agricultural.
• Northern states wanted a tax on imports from Britain while southern states wanted tax-free trade with Britain.

2. The issue with the attitude towards slavery

• Industrialized northern states preferred paid labourers while agricultural southern states which had large plantations were dependent on slave labour.
• Slavery was abolished in northern states in 1804 and they became ‘free states’.

3. Movement for the abolition of slavery

• A strong movement for the abolition of slavery began in the north. It called for the repeal of the controversial Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (this act had mandated the return of runaway slaves to their masters).

4. The fear of reforms by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party

• The immediate cause of the civil war was the American Presidential election in which the Republican Party candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won (1860).
• While Abraham Lincoln stood for freedom of slaves, the Democratic candidate Stephan Arnold Douglas wanted slavery to continue.

The course of the American Civil War

• Seven southern states declared their secession from the Union and established a Southern government – the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861.
• The Confederacy adopted its own Constitution.
• Jefferson Davis was its President.
• War broke out in April 1861 when the Confederates attacked a U.S. fortress (Fort Sumter) at South Carolina.
• 4 more states joined the Confederacy, making the total number of states 11.
• In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emancipation, which freed millions of slaves.
• In the Gettysburg battle, almost 50,000 soldiers were killed.
• Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg Address – where he set before the nation the task of preserving the Union and democracy. His vision was a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
• The war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the collapse of the Confederate government in 1865. General Lee surrendered his Confederate army to General Ulysses S Grant.

Significance of the American Civil War

1. The war put an end to the institution of slavery.
2. The war abolished the secession of states for all times to come.
3.  In the economic sphere, the war led to the growth of large scale manufacturing industries.
4. More area came under cultivation – particularly in the western regions on North America.
5. Use of more machines – which enhanced production.
6. Regulation of banking system ((National Banking Act) and use of paper currency contributed to the growth of the nationwide business.
7. New weapons were used.
8. Improvement in transport and communication
9. Inspiration to other countries – to abolish slavery.
10. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be.

For more than a century, the most-accepted estimate was about 620,000 dead. A specific figure of 618,222 is often cited, with 360,222 Union deaths and 258,000 Confederate deaths.

impact of american civil war on india

The American Civil War began in the year 1861. Until this year, America was the primary supplier of cotton to England which was well into its Industrial Revolution and had replaced to a significant extent, the cloth that was purchased by people in most of British colonies.

Ryots in India had not taken to growing cotton on a large scale, and when there was a sudden vacuum in supplies of cotton, British manufacturers urged the government to assist them. Merchants in India decided to cash in on this opportunity, and started loaning money to intermediaries, who in turn lent ryots and nudged them to grow cotton.

This was well-received by the ryots, for as always, they were short on money and a comfortable living. They now were being paid large advances, and given assurances of purchase of their output.

All was well, until 1865, when the Civil war in America came to an end. British manufacturers reverted to procuring cotton from America, and the moneylenders and intermediaries in India started forcing ryots to pay back the loaned money, and doing nothing about the fact that the ryots' produce was of little value now.

And as always, the sufferer at the end of it all, was the ryot who was at the mercy of money lenders.