To what extent did economic, political, and social change effect the lives of colonists after the American Revolution?

Essay by en_gallopHigh School, 11th gradeA+, December 2005

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Although the colonists' lives changed significantly in many ways after the American Revolution, the economic, political, and social conversions are viewed to be the most dramatic. The American Revolution was the war between the American colonies and Great Britain from 1775-1783 . Most consider this war not to be a nationalist revolution, in which the aim of the revolutionaries was to overturn the existing system, but rather to set up the North American colonies as an independent nation.

There were extensive economic problems and modifications after the American Revolution, since America refused to pay taxes to England. The "taxation without representation" slogan of the 1700s was enough to persuade colonists to action. There was no real class with poverty, but economic pressure added to a feeling of the way things were being run limited the colonists' fiscal activity. The Revolution provided the means necessary to give the most support to merchants' interests - budding commerce, the free market, and trade.

Political change was also a consequence of the Revolution. This war occurred partially because the "realistic" limitations of the English political field made any policy that would match the colonial wishes unattainable. America is recognized to have come forward from its Revolution with a more efficient and centralized government. The Revolution birthed many advances, including the separation of church and state, concepts of individual rights and equalities, the delegation of power through written constitutions, and the notion that the government should be by consent of the people. Some say, after the Revolution, authority and liberty did not flow from the political party of the society but from the configuration of its personal relationships, affecting social development.

Different social classes wanted the revolution for diverse reasons. Wealthy patriots were looking to independence to free themselves from British taxation and...