Revolution: The American Revolution

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The American Revolution 1765-1783 was an important time in history, it was during the Age of Enlightenment 1685-1815 where men such as Voltaire and others challenged the way of life that intern challenged the monarchy and the church on such matters as class and freedom, but to what extend was it a revolution? The word Revolution has various definitions for example Oxford Dictionary defines revolution as ‘a forcible overthrow of a government of social order, in favor of a new system’1 Wilbert Moore (1963) argues that ‘revolutions as a form of change that involves violence, that engages a large portion of the population, and that produces a transformation of the overall structure of government’2. With this in mind we can analyze just how extend …show more content…
However, these acts were seen as by American colonists as the Intolerable Acts as the other American colonies feared this could happen to them and as such started to rebel, Colin Bonwick explains it that ‘…the Americans began challenging royal authority, first by political protest, then by assembling arms for military resistance’. With the escalation of violence and rebellion against the British rule lead to a separation in the population between those who supported the British government and the crown where the loyalists and those who supported the rebellion the patriots according to Colin Bonwick it was around 20 and 30 percent who actively supported the Crown. Although originally what may have started out as political protests against the acts of the British government evolved in to an all-out bid for independence by the American colonies thus turning in to a revolution with the removal of the British government and the establishment of an American government.

With this it appears that Wilbert Moore’s argument of what a revolution is, describes just to what extend the American revolution was a revolution as it demonstrated all the characteristics he