The American Revolution
Changes History
• A difficult process: Four nations, Four
needs, 1 peace…
• Compromising the needs of:
• Spain, France, Britain, and the US
Spain’s Needs:
• No Formal ties with the United States.
• Spain was a hindrance to our cause because
they had wants and needs that were contrary
to our own.
• Had desires linked to continued presence on
the Mississippi River
France’s Needs
• Very supportive of our cause and an
indispensable factor in our independence
but their support was limited.
• They had land interests in the colonies that
went beyond what the US were willing to
give.
British Need’s
• Grant US colonial independence and at the
same time from a losing role preserve the
integrity of the empire’s trading relationship
with the countries involved.
US Needs:
• Complete and total independence from
Britain.
• Complete and total political and
geographical autonomy from the world.
The team of Negotiators
• A very able and key crew…key to success
in post war world.
• John Jay
• Ben Franklin
• John Adams
Diplomatic Breakdowns
• Jay, Adams, and Franklin catch wind of
some secret negotiations between the
French and British relating to the drawing
of our boundary to the east of the
Mississippi.
• Negotiations from this point forward go
directly to the British.
• Bypassing the British Plan and the French
willingness to listen our smooth Ben
Franklin was able to circumvent the
situation by lying to the British and French
and turning them against each other.
The End of the War:
• Treaty of Paris: 1783
• Formal recognition of American
Independence by the British and Europe
• The beginning of the United States.
Components of the Deal
• Boundaries of the nation: Fla. In the south,
Mississippi in the West and Canada to the
North…don’t ask what the east is, you
should know.
• British retained right to collect old debts
• Forced to leave forts in west with
“convenient speed”…problem?
Map: 1783
Map #2
A proud moment
• Several days after watching the loyalists
and British troops sail for home…a proud
moment in that 13 disorganized, poorly
armed and organized armies defeated the
supreme power on the planet!
The End of Washington?
• At the conclusion of the war as Washington
watched the last of the loyalists and
Lobsterbacks board their ships to England,
he rode off to the Continental Congress
building in Philadelphia (seat of colonial
government) to submit his resignation and
leave public life…oh how wrong he was!
Changes Stemming From
Revolution
• Not as great a change as its compatriots:
Russian and French Revolutions.
• Change had been going on prior to the
Revolution in events such as:
• Colonization
• Mercantilism: restructured economics of the
region
• Changes in government: pulling away from
England and forming new ideas.
• Salem Witch Trials
• John Peter Zenger Trial
Post Revolution: What are we left
with?
• Economically: White landowning middle
class revolution
• Most Americans before and after—fairly
well off economically.
• Slavery in tact: the biggest problem in the
post revolutionary period.
• Little economic change because of loyalists
leaving.
Slavery:
• Totally left out of the prosperity, socially,
politically, and economically after the
Revolution.
• The ultimate contradiction, why are slaves
left out of life, liberty, and pursuit of
happiness?
• Where are their unalienable rights????
On to Problems 2 and 3?
• The US will have several problems to deal
with in the post Revolutionary period…
• 1. Establishing a new government to
effectively govern and address the problems
of the old system.
• 2. Slavery
• 3. Economic viability of the US in a partial
slave economy?
• The Revolutionary war period and the
exclusion of Slaves by the founding fathers
will serve to tear the country apart for then
next 100 years and is still felt in the new
millennium.
• North saw gradual emancipation…not a
problem where as the South emancipation
will be out of the question.
• Further south you went the higher the
number of slaves…map#3
• Example: Thomas Jefferson…had slaves his
whole life and even fathered children by
those slaves!
• Slave trade issue???? War stopped it next
battle will be does it continue?
Religion
• Gradually the separation of Church and
state will be instituted in the new country.
Final example
• US serves to be the role model for all of
humanity when it comes to successful
execution of political independence and the
establishment of a free and democratic state.