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The Impulse to Revolution

The impulse to revolution may reside in the felt need of a mass of people to respond to their experience of tyranny by declaring themselves sovereign. However, the revolutionary visions of those who transform their political situation may differ dramatically, with significant consequences. That was the case with the 18th-century American and 20th-century Russian revolutions.

In the American case, revolution guaranteed the new nation a significant degree of territorial sovereignty. The geographic isolation of North America from Europe fostered political isolation, which is partly why the taxation by the mother country was so onerously felt and so earnestly criticized in the Declaration of Independence. But isolation and independence had a double effect because they were successful. In the postwar period, United States economic structure could not be supported by the structure of confederation, and the country was hardly financially independent. As Becker points out, "French gold financed the war" (1915, p. 259). Thus one major challenge for the United States was to develop a self-sustaining economic system.

Political credibility was also at issue. That is because, after the revolution was over, there was a possibility that Loyalists would be targeted for violence by Patriots. There seems to have been relatively little of that. Writing in 1785, two years after the war was over, Jefferson (1943) says that English reports about anarchy in America are lies but are widely believed in Europe. In any case, many Loyalists fled their property, preferring Canada or Britain to the new nation. On the other hand, Loyalists' property was routinely confiscated and "sold for the benefit of the new State Governments" (Becker, 1915, pp. 259-60). What made confiscation problematic was the fact that the states retained the proceeds, while the national government teetered on the brink of bankruptcy: "Congress, unable to collect its requisitions, was f...

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The Impulse to Revolution. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:11, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1683003.html