Early in 1600s, the dissacords and frictions between Great Britian and American colonies such as 'Navigation Act' and 'Stamp Act' later on 1775-1776 turn to a battle for the colonies' independence. The people who were head of the battle were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams.
Between 1600s and 1700s British colonists settled 'along the eastern shore of North America' by achieving the battle between British and French colonies. There were 13 colonies and they had all their own government with the 'great degree of independence'. The colonies saw themselves less British and more Virginians which is another colony who lived in the North America. However, the colonies were still accepted the British laws.
Middle of 1700s , during the time when George 3 was the king of Britain, the colonies increased rapidly as their prosperity which cause a new thinking of identity. Economically, they were a developed county on trade especially the trade to the European countries.
In 1651, the British Parliament started to run a new trade law which is called 'the Navigation Act'. According to law the colonies weren't allow to sell their most valuable goods to any other country except Great Britain. Moreover, the colonies had to pay high taxes to import French and Dutch products. Britain used advantage of it and bought American colonies' valuable products for low prices and sold them to get money from the goods.
In 1754, a battle started in North America between Britain and France which is called 'Indian War'. The battle ended in 1763 with the victory of Britain. Britain seized almost all of the French land in the North America.
However, the conquest only cause problems between Britain and the colonies. Because Britain helped its colonies to be successful in the battle, they got into a dept and Britain expected some economical help from its colonies. Therefore, in 1773 the British Parliament executed a new law which is called 'Stamp Act'. According to this law, colonists had to pay high taxes to get stamps for wills, deeds, newspaper and other official printed materials.
Because of several reasons the colonist argued that they cannot pay high taxes. Firstly, this taxes were the first directly taxes which is paid to Britain. Secondly, colonists taught that it is against the colony's natural rights and also the colony's lawyers agreed with this. Besides, the colonies thought that it is 'taxation without representation'. The British citizens accepted to give taxes 'through their representatives in Parliament'. However . the colonies didn't accepted. They refused immediately.
The disagreements between the colonies and Britain are increased. Some colonies' heads wanted to get their own independence. In 1773, some American colonies dumped a loaf of British tea to the Boston harbor to protest the tax on importation. George 3 outraged because of this event which is called 'the Boston Tea Party'. Because of 'the Boston Tea Party', the British sea forces closed the Boston port.
In 1774, because the American colonies are bored of the high taxes and the treatment, they decided to get together. They organized a congress in September which is known as 'The First Continental Congress' in the history. Many representatives from each colony except Georgia got together to discuss about the treatments such as 'Navigation Act', 'Stamp Act' and tax on tea.
In 1775, gunfire started between American soldiers and British army in Lexington, Massachusetts which is spread to nearby Concord later.
After the gunfire stopped, the representatives got together again to make up ' The Second Continental Congress'. One of the reason why they did this congress was because the king of Britain paid attention to the first congress. In this congress, the representatives decided to organize an army for a battle. The power of the army was on a Virginian's hands , named George Washington. Finally, the American revolution begun.
The colonies leaders justify independence by using the Enlightenment ideas. The leaders wanted the same political rights as the British citizens have. However, the king of the Britain refused immediately. Therefore, the tension is increased between American colonies and British government. Moreover, the social contract had broken because of this.
In 1776, Declaration of Independence is written by Thomas Jefferson during the Second Continental Congress. The document is based on the Enlightenment ideas especially on John Locke's ideas. By this writing , the colonists reflected their ideas about natural rights in a massive way. The Declaration's main theme was 'life, liberty and pursuit of happiness'. The documents were ended by the colonies' separation from Britain.
However, Britain didn't give up without a fight. After the declaration is published both side got ready for a battle. First, British army had more advantage then Americans. They were close to win the war. However, the war ended up with the victory of Americans. There were several reasons why Americans won the war. Firstly, the British army made couple mistakes during the battle time. Besides, because Britain had to get America to fight with Americans spent a lot of money. Secondly, Americans has more desire to win the battle then British soldiers. Because British soldiers were fighting with the people who were actually from their own country. Lastly, Americans didn't fight alone. France helped them to win the war.
After their success , 13 colonies started to search for the right government system for themselves. In 1781, the colonies accepted a constitution which was 'The Articles of Confederation'. This constitution emphasized that the United States is a republic. According to this government the citizens were electing their own representatives. Besides, 13 colonies created a conferedation. The most power was on the conferedation hands.This condfederation was a weak goverment system for these 13 colonies. There weren't any executive. Neither there were ' judicial branches'. There were only one body of government which is Congress. Congress had no power. However, It entered into treaties, collected money and regulated trade. According to this government system passing a law was so diffcult, to pass a law 9 of th 13 colonies supposed to accept the law. This weak government system brought many problems to the states such as money problems.
Later, the learders of colonies recognize the need of a new government system. In Februray 1787, Congress 'approved the Constitutional Convention'. The Constitutional Convention started to think about a new and powerful gorevnment system for the states. The first session was on May 1787. 55 delegents who were familiar with the Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau got together to discuss about the government. The delegates worked on a new government system for more than four moths. It wasn't easy to build a new government system for 13 states. Sometimes, delegates argued about how many vote should all the states have or how can they give all the power to the Congress. However, at the end they came up with the new government system which is called 'The Federal System'.
According to ' The Federal System' delegates made 'three separate branches' such as legislative, executive and judicial. So, the power was controlled by a group of people like Montesquieu's ideas. The 'three separate branches' is provided 'Checks and Balances'. Every power was controlled and checked by the other two power. Besides, to keep the government strong delegate were aware of the need of a central power which is provided by national and state governments.
On September,1787 the Constitution had signed by the delegates. According to the Constitution to run a law at least 9 of the 13 states should accepted it. However, this issue caused many contests. There were two group of people. One of them was the people who support the Constitution, called Federalists and the others were the peope who didn't support the Constitution, called Antifederalists. Federalists argued about 'the balance between national and state government'. Their most famous work was 'the Federalist Papers'. Antifederalists thought that the delegates gave so much power to center of the government. Therefore, they believed that 'the bill of rights' would protect their natural rights. In order to make antifederalists happy federalists accepted to add 'the bill of rights' to the Constitution. By adding 'the bill of rights' delegates protected 'the basic rights such as freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion' which are Voltaires's, Rousseau's and Locke's ideas. While ' the bill of rights' were protecting the basic right of citizens, they also provide a good government view in the people's mind.
The American Revolution was started with the hostilities between Britain and its colonies. However, later on the year it provided good aspects. We can clearly see that reason overbalanced the reform. The inevitable revolution affected the colonies in a good way like it affected the whole world.
