American Revolution Dbq

The colonists were not happy in the mid-eighteenth century. They were getting no respect and slowly having their rights taken away. They had hardly any say in the government and England was beginning to become corrupt. The government had way too much power and the people had to do something about it. A revolution to gain independence and liberty was about to take place. This revolution is called the American Revolution.

By the mid-eighteenth century the colonists began to develop their own identity that was unique and separate from other people. The colonists wanted to make their own laws and be an independent country. “ A set of ideas we refer to as civic humanism provided the basis for the ideas of the revolutionary war.”(Chapter 2 Pg.42)

The English common law and the European Enlightment played a big role as well. The English common law epitomized the principles of natural law. “Specifically the idea that god had chosen America as a special place in his grand design.”(Chapter 2. Pg.45) After the Stamp Act the colonists began to see a conspiracy to take down the entire British Empire’s liberty. This would happen by destroying the English Constitution and all of its rights and privileges that it protected. “The decision to station British troops in Boston in the fall of 1768 further signaled the destruction of the principles of the English Constitution.”(Chapter 2. Pg.46) After all of this is some colonists still doubted that they were victims of an attack on their liberty it was tooken away by the Boston Massacre in 1770. For the colonists the threat on their liberty was beginning to seem corrupt. This corruption was quickly spreading to the colonies. “The colonists’ remedy for that corruption was American Independence.”(Chpt.2 Pg.46) Parliament was

Negative liberty was defined in terms of the absence of restraint by government. Basically saying the government does not control me. In negative liberty the individual experiences liberty in the extent that the power of government is limited. In this view the government should be limited. The focus in classical liberalism is on natural rights. Natural rights are defined as rights that are ours for existing. Government should protect our natural rights but not to hardly do anything else in scare that government may too easily infrindge on citizen’s other rights. Positive liberty is based on ideas from classical Greek political theory. In this view of liberty man is a social animal and only finds fulfillment in harmony with others. Society will provide us with what we need, such as material goods and our goals and direction. This focuses on civic virtue, which is a desire to pursue the public good rather than individual interests. Paine’s Common Sense is closely related to the views on liberty. In this pamphlet he explains how the British government is too controlling. “The government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain.”(Chpt2-2 Pg.63) In negative liberty the government is not suppose to control the people. Also that “America would suffer numerous injuries by remaining connected with Great Britain and would not enjoy a single advantage.”(Chpt.2 Pg. 46) This is basically saying how Americans are