The Rebels as Victors

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The Rebels as Victors

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Six major reasons for victory

• 1. The Americans were fighting for their own
  soil, homes and freedom.
• 2. The Americans were superior wilderness
  fighters.
• 3. Superior leadership Washington, George
  Rogers Clark, Nathanael Greene, John Paul Jones.

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• 4. Notable foreign volunteers Marquis de
  Lafayette, Baron de Kalb, Baron von Steuban,
  Count Pulaski, and Thaddeus Kosciusko.
• 5. France, Spain and Holland enter the struggle
  against Great Britain.
• 6. Within England, public opinion was divided.
  ( William Pitt and Edmund Burke)

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Results of Revolution

• Winds of change

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Movement toward democracy

• Lessening of some voting restrictions.
• Elimination of primogeniture.
• Virginia Declaration of Rights. (1776)
• Gains in the fight for separation of church and
  state.
• Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom (1786).
• Movement against slavery.

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• Womens gains.
• Civic virtue. Who taught the children?
• Republican motherhood Elevated women as the
  keepers of the nations conscience.

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State constitutions

• Became the models for later documents.
• Followed the ideas of Montesquieu.
• Legislative branch usually had sweeping powers.