Colonists Case

Although the colonists began the 1760s celebrating the accession of King George III they soon became disillusioned. Within a dozen years following the introduction of imperial reforms, the colonists were in open rebellion against Great Britain. The sudden vehemence with which Americans moved into rebellion astonished their contemporaries as it has astonished historians ever since. A series of trade acts and tax levies did not seem to justify revolution. Yet many Americans by 1776 agreed with John Adams that the colonists were "in the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable, of any in the history of nations." What could account for it? How was it to be justified?

The colonists admitted that it was not the particular acts of the British government that explained the Revolution; it was the meaning of those acts. Americans strove to understand the intentions of the British government and to determine their rights and liberties.

A military victory over Great Britain may have been a prerequisite for the success of the Revolution, but for Americans the Revolution meant more than simply eliminating a king and instituting an elective system of government. The Revolution was a moral upheaval that promised a fundamental shift in values and a change in the very character of American society. Originally designed to counter and reverse the modernizing tendencies of American life, republicanism ultimately quickened and magnified these trends.

In this unit, you'll look at the events that finally led to the Revolutionary War and examine the kind of government that evolved in the United States.