King George III and the British parliament began encroaching on these new-found freedomes. ("George III in Coronation Robes," Wikimedia Commons, 1762)

Identify the key events that culminated in the American Founding (the Revolutionary War, the adoption and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, Shays' Rebellion, and the Constitutional Convention).

Historical Roots of the Founding

For the most part, the American colonists had come to the “New World” seeking political, religious, and economic liberty. Consequently, when King George III and the British parliament began encroaching on these new-found freedoms, the colonists were greatly alarmed. There was no single act or event which led the colonists to commence a war against the British Crown; rather, there was a litany of abuses and insults which, taken together, convinced the colonists that revolution was their only acceptable course of action. (See A Brief Chronology of the Revolutionary War.)

The colonists were perhaps the most likely people in the history of the world to commence a revolution against a tyrannical government; They were generally very literate, and the colonists had “devoured” the writings of seventeenth-century English civil war writers and their successors, such as Milton, Neville, Trenchard, and Gordon. From these authors, the colonists acquired a powerful sense of moral indignation toward political corruption of any kind.1 Moreover, while recognizing that government is necessary to save man from the “state of nature” depicted by Hobbes and Locke, they also believed that their liberty rested on their ability to maintain superiority, i.e. physical military power, over their government. As the British government continually pressed itself and its authority on the colonists, they concluded that England’s dominion over the colonies was essentially the power to destroy their liberty.2 Together, these beliefs laid the philosophical foundations for the Revolution.

The roots of revolution were also sown in the economic, social, and political conditions in the colonies. As the American economy began to flourish, the colonies were becoming more economically independent from Britain. More importantly, there was no rigid class system in America, and the abundance of land and resources gave rise to a powerful sense of economic and political equality among the colonists. While Crown governors officially presided over each colony, the traditions of popular sovereignty and participation in government had taken hold in the colonies.

When the Declaration of Independence was drafted, signed, and sent to the king, the colonists were not stating new-found beliefs. On the contrary, they were formally restating long and deeply held beliefs about government and the sanctity of their individual liberties. It was for these beliefs that they fought and died, ultimately emerging as a new nation.