Causes of the American Revolution
The American Revolution had specific characteristics that distinguished it from many other people’s uprisings occurring in the world before and after it. First, the revolution of 1775-1783 took place on the territory that, in fact, did not experience feudalism as a socio-economic formation (Bailyn, 2017). The local society was democratic in its convictions and moods and aspired to equality. Another reason for this long-term uprising was that it pursued national liberation goals (Raphael, 2016). This struggle was initially planned as a peaceful expression of people’s ideas and soon developed into armed conflicts, which were exacerbated by British colonial oppression. Finally, according to Vile (2016), as events unfolded during the period of the revolution, social contradictions began to emerge: many Americans went over to the side of the British Empire, thereby demonstrating their disagreement with the current state of the society in the country and the desire to amend the current situation.
America, being under the yoke of the British crown long, began to fight for its independence actively. At the same time, the residents of some areas, which were initially populated by European colonists, started to support a liberating idea and even took part in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin was such a representative, one of the authors of this public document. Until his returning to America from London, Mr. Franklin regularly supported the aspirations of the colonists (Bailyn, 2017). Many British conquerors took the side of American freedom fighters, which emphasized their desire to give the New World freedom. It probably became one of the key factors contributing to the proclamation of the US independence.
Articles of Confederation
The articles of Confederation were a unique code of documents, which was adopted in 1777, that is, the following year after the Declaration of Independence signing (Vile, 2016). These laws provided for freedom of religion on the territory of the country, support for the jury trial, as well as the abolition of slavery in the north-western part of the USA (Vile, 2016). Nevertheless, the articles bore some problems for the government; in particular, it concerned the formation of new states and the peculiarities of trade among them. All of it led to the fact that in 1787 in Philadelphia, a corresponding Constitutional Convention was adopted, at which the representatives of almost all states gathered (the exception was Rhode Island) (Raphael, 2016). At this meeting, it was decided to amend the existing articles of the Confederation and create a new document that would provide for a new form of government that would be more focused on the interests of the nation rather than the states.
One of the central decisions at the 1787 convention concerned the judicial system. The fact is that large and small states could not agree on what legislative power should be in the country. As a result, all the members of the meeting came to the same conclusion that the new authority had to be created. This board was Congress. As Bailyn (2017) claims, also, the Convention decided to form the Supreme Court and select some representatives from the states that were supposed to be its part (). Thus, it is possible to say that a new constitutional law concerned mainly the legislature and the possibility of state participation in resolving the issues of the country.
References
Bailyn, B. (2017). The ideological origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth anniversary edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Raphael, R. (2016). A People’s history of the American Revolution: How common people shaped the fight for independence. New York, NY: The New Press.
Vile, J. R. (2016). Conventional wisdom: The alternate article V mechanism for proposing amendments to the US Constitution. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.