Although the colonists' lives changed significantly in many ways after the American Revolution, the economic, political, and social conversions are viewed to be the most dramatic. The American Revolution was the war between the American colonies and Great Britain from 1775-1783 . Most consider this war not to be a nationalist revolution, in which the aim of the revolutionaries was to overturn the existing system, but rather to set up the North American colonies as an independent nation.There were extensive economic problems and modifications after the American Revolution, since America refused to pay taxes to England. The "taxation without representation" slogan of the 1700s was enough to persuade colonists to action. There was no real class with poverty, but economic pressure added to a feeling of the ...view middle of the document...
The Revolution birthed many advances, including the separation of church and state, concepts of individual rights and equalities, the delegation of power through written constitutions, and the notion that the government should be by consent of the people. Some say, after the Revolution, authority and liberty did not flow from the political party of the society but from the configuration of its personal relationships, affecting social development.Different social classes wanted the revolution for diverse reasons. Wealthy patriots were looking to independence to free themselves from British taxation and land limitations, but were planning on remaining in control of the resulting nation. Craftsmen and merchants were looking at independence as a way of dropping the privileges of the elite. The upper class needed the aid of the lower, but were apprehensive of their more radical goals. John Adams, although part of the elite more by education than monetary worth, deemed Paine's Common Sense for its "absurd democratically notions" it proposed. Even within the American patriots, there were many other factions of the group, usually determined by an individual's social and moral standings. The Federalists (including John Jay and George Washington) were a more conservative faction traditionally seen as engrossed with saving the wealth and power of the more "upstanding" people of colonial society. On the other hand, men like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin are seen as representing the poorer side of society, and promoting political equality.Where some think the American Revolution was not "revolutionary" at all, others believe it was warranted as such by establishing a new, satisfying regime. No matter what one thinks of this, there are factual aspects of America that considerably changed after the war, the most important being the economy, political structure, and social life.
