Title: Lecture 1: Revolution
1Lecture 1 Revolution
2Material causes of the American Revolution
- French and Indian War (1756-1763)
-
Massive debt
Taxation Stamp Act (1765) Tea Tax (1767)
3Result of taxes and other policies
- Resentment
- No taxation without representation
- boycotts and tea parties
Boston Tea Party (1774)
4Thomas PaineCommon Sense
- IN the following pages I offer nothing more than
simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense
and have no other preliminaries to settle with
the reader, than that he will divest himself of
prejudice . . . - I have heard it asserted by some, that as America
hath flourished under her former connexion with
Great-Britain, that the same connexion is
necessary towards her future happiness, and will
always have the same effect. Nothing can be more
fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as
well assert that because a child has thrived upon
milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the
first twenty years of our lives is to become a
precedent for the next twenty. - O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not
only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!
Every spot of the old world is overrun with
oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the
globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled
her.Europe regards her like a stranger, and
England hath given her warning to depart. O!
receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an
asylum for mankind.
5Diamonds theory of Revolution
- Revolutionary ideas
- John Lockes Second Treatisenatural rights,
including that of rebellion - Thomas Paines Common Senseagainst irrational
tyranny - People capable of leadership
- Tradition of self-governance and civic activism
- Longstanding grievance and some sparking
events - Concord and Lexington 1775
6(No Transcript)
7Second Continental Congress and Declaration of
Independence (1776)When in the Course of human
events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers
of the earth, the separate and equal station to
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation. We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed, --That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
8The meaning of the 1776--A war of Independence or
a Revolution?
Hannah Arendts view compared to France,
Russia, China--no revolution no class
antagonism, no social transformation
Gordon Woods view let loose profound social
transformation--p.8
9Against the Textbook Version
- Perhaps 20-25 of Americans continued to be
loyalists
10Anglo Canada