Associated Costs with the American Revolution
American revolution changed the whole world. When the western world was established, it was a revolution to European world, where democracy was founded. Before the settlements in America, Europe was governed by a king, and aristocrats/nobles being born into families. The poor didn’t have the rights to choose their representatives or seek change.
Towards American Revolution
There was a religious scrutiny, where people were forced to be believers of the popular faith i.e. protestant or catholic. Furthermore, only nobles had an socio-economic standing, where common people didn’t had any means to be upwardly mobile in the society. Slavery of the native Americans and Africans were on the rise.
Women had no political role, nor economic role in society. However, when colonies were established in America, and declaration of independence was signed, revolutionary changes were made. Changes such as democracy, constitution, religious freedom, political, socio-economic mobility, smooth transition of power happened in America, which set the whole world on a new direction, however, these revolutionary changes had associated costs for some groups.
Firstly, the major revolution was the establishment of democracy, but only by the society elites. Before declaration of independence, a royal system existed in the Europe, where people were the subjects of kings, and nobles decided the fate of the whole Europe. However, in America, declaration of Independence was signed and Americans got independence from the royal system of Europe, and democracy was put in place.
After that, framers of the constitution proposed that the American politics and fate would by decided by rich white men at first. America has the change of president every four years, while the house of representatives has election every two years. However, at first, only rich white men with property standing had the right for the vote and to choose their state legislators to choose presidents.
The groups present in America such as African Americans, poor white men and women didn’t have any choice regarding this matter. Women did have the right in New Jersey to vote with the implication of 15th amendment, however, the rest of the states didn’t allow women to vote. This changed over time with voting rights expansions and amendments to the constitution later on.
Second major revolution was the implication of religious freedom, where there was no state religion, in contrast to Europe being strictly protestant or catholic. Religious freedom can be taken for granted now a days, however, in the past, people didn’t have the right to practice faith freely in the Europe.
Steps towards American Revolution
The first step can be traced from the establishment of Plymouth colony, where puritans came close to establishing egalitarianism. They were attached to the Church of England; however, they were not happy with the proceedings of the church and wanted to improve the church from within. When America gained independence, and different states were formed, there was no state religion, and everyone i.e. catholic, protestant or Quakers were allowed to practice their faith freely.
Thirdly, women were blessed with a political voice, and rights, though not at first, but later, that contributed to the transformation of the American society. At first, women in New Jersey were allowed to vote and select the state legislator. Furthermore, women became active in political campaign, and that is evident from Abigail Adams, where she lobbied for women full citizenship.
In Europe, women were forced to remain in their traditional roles of being housewives, and they had no political standing, except the queen. However, in America, there was a revolution in female roles in politics, to which, now we enjoy the fruits of feminism and political voice for gender equality.
The real revolution was the election of 1800s, where there was a smooth transition of power, from the elites to common representatives. the politics reformed as presidency moved from Federalist party to Democratic Republican party. Federalist party are Gentlemen, elitists, who were afraid of political factions or parties, and presidents were chosen amongst the gentlemen.
However, in the depicted era, we saw the formation of democratic republican party, and smooth transition of power from one party to another. The framers were also afraid of factions, but that changed. Furthermore, the media was free, as it was bound by sedition act before. In 1800, electoral college was in disarray as T. Jefferson and Aaron Burr got the same votes, and hence, 12th amendment came into being, that the framers of the constitution didn’t anticipate.
Success of American Revolution
However, where American revolution was successfully in many ways, it did fail in the context of constitution, slavery, women rights, and native Americans. “All men are born equal” in the constitution was first applied to white men, as black men and native Americans were bound to slavery. African Americans were forced to have no citizenship, other than being the slaves of their white masters.
They didn’t have freedom, life, and civil liberties. Furthermore, the framers established the choosing of presidency through electoral college, where state legislators chose the presidents, and it was the betrayal of popular vote. Furthermore, the racial segregation was another failure of the constitution at first.
Secondly, American revolution didn’t abolish slavery and kept the custom of slavery from Europe, even after gaining the independence. The slaves were forced to work in the plantations, were treated inhumanely, and killed on amusement. The cotton plantations were popular at the time, and rich white males needed the slaves to work on those plantations to keep generating huge revenue streams. For that means, slave trade and even, kidnapping and force slavery was popular at the time.
Women also didn’t enjoy their freedom or gain equal identity as males in America, even after the 15th amendment. They weren’t allowed to vote, even when black males were allowed to vote, and this states the universal suffrage of women in America. Furthermore, when industrial revolution occurred, women did step out of their traditional role to have economic significance, but their jobs were labor-intensive, composed of long-exhausting hours, with poor working and living conditions.
The only jobs present for women were in the clothing industry, including sewing and stitching. Lastly, Native Americans weren’t considered the citizens of America, their lands were taken away, their population decreased to 1/3rd of their original population, and their culture, language suffered huge losses. It failed to provide them relief, even after invading their territories. They were forced into reservations, restricted their socio-economic mobility etc.
Associated costs of American Revolution
Hence, American revolution was successfully in many fields, but also, failed in many departments. Though the changes were slow, but due to those slow changes, America suffered huge loss of lives, culture, and languages. African Americans and Native Americans suffered the most out of any group.
While the change eventually came, where African Americans and Native Americans were able to achieve their freedom, but the cost was already too great. African Americans had no resources to reestablish them in the society run by rich white elites, while Native Americans lost their lands to them. This was a horrific side of American revolution in itself.
These both groups had to start from the bottom, and hence, they’re the most deprived group in the America today. Women now has many liberties, but still, they face discrimination, face glass ceiling, have inequality in jobs and wages, but now, they have the right to vote and a political voice to change their status in the society.
The bloodshed of the past, violence, and discriminations have become the biggest teachers of history for America. So much was lost to the wars, and if America wants to improve on its lacking areas, it should take a look at its history and provide the deprived people their rights of equality to become one of the most progressive nation in the world.
For more interesting research based op-ed articles, keep us following here
