The American Revolution How the Intellectual Evolution of Western Civilization led to a break from Old World Politics.

1. Joseph Ricardo
History 494
Professor Zarrillo
May 11, 2008
The American Revolution
How the Intellectual Evolution of Western Civilization led to a break from
Old World Politics.

2. The American Revolution is an interesting and commonly popular event in
history especially to those living in the United States. In my writing I will show and
prove my theory that the American Revolution was a product of an intellectual evolution
of Western civilized man that created a progressive liberal society to counter the Old
World conservative forms of government. This happened in a few stages the first was the
emergence from the Dark Ages an era of ignorance and little progress. Next was the
progress in the Renaissance era and the rebellion against the papal authority in the
Protestant Reformation. Then there was the colonization of the New World that coincided
with European Enlightenment and the flourishing of liberal government and ideology of
the American Colonies. Finally was the defiance of British authority, rebellion against
British forces, and finally Revolution against the British for Independence.
The American Revolution is often thought of as a conflict between American
Colonist and the British stemming from animosity over taxation of colonial affairs. I
believe that the conflict was much larger in scope. The American Revolution was the
culmination of dissatisfaction that had been growing since the end of the Dark Ages and
the onset of the Renaissance in the 14th
century. Western Civilization went for the most
part stagnant after the fall of Rome, divided into small nations Europeans were plagued
by wars, conflict and disease. During this time the Catholic Church and monarchies ruled
under the church were in charge of the governments of most of Europe.
The Dark Ages are often described as a time period from the fall of Rome to until
around 1000 AD which then becomes the Middle and High Middle Ages. I would in my
opinion describe the Dark Ages as period that didn’t end politically until the Magna Carta
of 1215, technology wise not until Gutenberg’s printing press of 1450 and religiously

3. until Martin Luther’s 95 thesis in 1517. The lives of normal citizens were limited mostly
to serfs living on and working on land owned by land lords.
The Dark Ages were a time of Western civilization stagnation in science,
technology, literature, and also a lack of historical accounts of the time. The inventions of
Western man during the Dark Ages are limited to the heavy plough of the 5th
century,
tidal mills in the 7th
century, and the hour glass in the 9th
or 10th
century1
. To show how
far Western mans intellect expanded during the Renaissance the mechanical clock was
invented in Milan in the year 1335 a mere 300 years after the invention of the hour glass.
The gap between Western civilization progressions can be seen in numerous fields
including math, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, medicine. In medicine you have a gap
between Galen’s discovery of the link between severing the spinal cord and paralysis in
180 AD to Roger Bacon’s writing about concave lenses for the treating of long
sightedness in 12493
. During the medical gap of Western Civilization Islamic scholars
like 9th
century Muslim Hakim and physician al-Tabari who wrote the first medical
encyclopedia, a 9th
century Persian physician Razi made distinctions between measles and
small pox, and Ibn Zuhr the father of experimental surgery who was also the first
physician to use inhalant anesthetics in the early 12th
century. This is just one example of
the cultural decline of Western man during the Dark Ages.
During the time of the Dark Ages there was little progress made in monarchial
governments until the signing of the Charter of Liberties 1100 and the Magna Carta in
1215. The Charter of Liberties4
was an important document because King Henry binds
himself and future kings, earls, barons and others in high positions to the same laws as
common citizens. The Charter of Liberties was the predecessor of the Magna Carta of

4. 1215, unlike its predecessor this document would not be signed by the free will of the
king5
. The signing of the Magna Carta was a result of King John’s abuse of power as well
as perceived incompetence. During his reign he managed to lose territories in France
including Normandy a huge source of English income. John also managed to get
excommunicated by the pope by not excepting Pope Innocent’s appointee as the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent even went as far as suggesting to Philip of Spain to
invade England. To make amends John gave England and Ireland as papal territories.
This action outraged the barons of England that the king would give up autonomy of
England. Johns actions that would offend the commoners was his attempt to raise taxes
for the army due to the loss of French territories. On July 10, 1215 numerous barons
gathered together and went to London to force King John to sign the Articles of the
Barons. Clause 61 the security clause allowed for a committee of 25 barons to overturn
any unjust ruling by the king6
. John immediately denounced the agreement and threw
England into a civil war “the First Barons War” which ended shortly after John’s death.
The Magna Carta was a huge influence not only to the growth of Parliamentary rights and
in turn to more power to ordinary people. The document is also a large influence on the
Declaration of Independence.
Between the end of the Dark Ages and the onset of the Renaissance and there was
a period of catastrophes like the Black Death7
, and the Hundred Years War. The Black
Death was a disease called the bubonic plague that killed at least one third of the
European population or an estimated 25 million people between the five year period of
1347 to 1352. Some felt it was the anger of God and tried to appease him by whipping
themselves and even some blamed and attacked Jewish people. After the plague ended

5. and one third of Europeans were deceased there was a lot of land left behind and an
abundance of work opportunities. The upper class and land lords tried to keep wages low
with laws like the Statute for Laborers in 13518
, but the fact that there was so much work
and such a shortage of labor left many land lords no choice but to pay higher wages. I
believe this tragic event allowed for ordinary people to become more independent in both
philosophy and faith, as they could no longer depend on their clerics to save them and
now had more opportunities to advance in society with the abundance of work
opportunities. Ordinary people were now becoming less subservient to the upper class.
After the Black Death ordinary European people seemed ready to put behind the
old way of life and began pursuing new interests and becoming artisans9
. Cultural
advances were being made in parts of Europe, new inventions were emerging, and
advances in science were coming to fruition. The Renaissance began in Italy but would
soon spread throughout Europe mostly though France, Germany and England.
The Italian Renaissance was driven by the humanist movement, which was a
belief in equality and dignity of all people. The early influence to the humanist movement
in Italy was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)10
. Dante was famous for his work the Divine
Comedy in which he travels through hell, purgatory and paradise when he realizes that
more popes were in hell than in paradise. The moral of the story was that popes could as
easily go to hell as could any normal citizen. This was one of the first in a growing trend
of challenges to papal authority. Other contributors to the humanist movement were men
like, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio these men contributed to the growth of
freethinking but not the challenge of authority or the old way of life as Dante did. The
Renaissance in Italy also saw the artistry of men like Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo

6. Da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, Bramante and Lorenzo Ghiberti. Along with men like Lorenzo
di Medici who was a Florence politician who funded artist like Michelangelo and Da
Vinci, Italian artistry had reached a high point.
The Renaissance in Europe was a direct influences on the next revolution in
Europe the Protestant Reformation. This reformation was preceded by men like William
Ockham, Dante, and John Wycliffe, but began with Martin Luther’s 95 thesis and men
like John Calvin and Zwingli. Martin Luther was a German monk who wrote the 95
theses which were a direct challenge to papal authority12
. Luther’s motivation was the
collection of indulgences which the church remitted sins in exchange for money, Luther
believed only God could remit sins. Beginning in theses five and six he challenges the
authority of the pope to remit sins, when Luther believes only God can remit sins. He
challenges the pope’s authority as Gods messenger on earth, promotes scripture over the
papacy, and criticizes indulgences. These challenges by Luther would lead to a new
spread of discontent against the Catholic churches authority.
Around the same time as Martin Luther there was Ulrich Zwingli who was a
priest who questioned papal authority over the word of the scripture and eventually found
him self in conflict with the Zurich pulpit for seduction of young woman, in which
Zwingli replied his vow to celibacy did not necessarily mean chastity13
. By 1522 he along
with ten other priests petitioned to the Bishop of Constance for permission to get married.
This petition went ignored but Zwingli finally married a woman outside of the church.
John Calvin born in Switzerland was another leader in the Protestant Reformation.
Calvin was a product of Northern Renaissance humanism and wanted to reform the

7. church but found himself in conflict with the papacy and forced into exile. He is most
famous for his writings the Institutes of the Christian Religion, as well as his work in
Geneva.
The Catholic Church at first tried to counter the rise of Protestant Reformation
with revivals which were started by Pope Pius IV in 1560. They tried to reform within
their interpretation of scripture, and their religious style. Pope Paul III would try
reforming his bishops and priests with his Council of Trent but eventually the papacy
would turn to harsher tactics in their efforts for Counter Reformation15
. The papacy
would resort to inquisitions, in which they would torture, imprison, or put to death any
one accused of heretic ideology. This led way to major controversy between Catholics
and Protestants and different countries were beginning to nationalize themselves after
Protestant religions.
Luckily for Western Civilization the Age of Exploration was already under way
by the early 15th
century. While Columbus is credited with but not always agreed to as
discovering the New World in 1492 and landed on South American mainland in 1498,
Vasco Da Gama reached India for the first time for Europeans in 1498. The New World
would prove to be the new stepping stone for liberal ideology and separation from Old
World culture and politics. By 1607 the New World had its first English colony the
Jamestown Virginia settlement. By 1620 there was the second English colony in the New
World in present day Plymouth Massachusetts. The colonies within Massachusetts and
the surrounding New England colonies would eventually become most influential in
colonial politics, spreading much liberal ideology, ideas of natural rights, free will,
human rights, equal rights, and a freer attitude toward politics, culture and religion.

8. The original English settlers in the New World came seeking both religious
freedom and economic prosperity. Legislation like the 1559 Act of Uniformity, made it
illegal to conduct private or unofficial church services outside of the Church of England,
it also made it illegal not to attend church services. Separatist like Henry Barrowe and
John Greenwood were executed for their defiance of the new church laws. After much
tension between Separatist and Puritans with the Anglican Church a group of them were
finally able to obtain a patent for land in the New World. Robert Cushman and John
Carver convinced investors with the London Company to grant them a patent by telling
them of the speculated profitable opportunities in the New World. En Route to the New
World they decided to write up their own constitution the Mayflower Compact. This
document established a majoritarian form of government16
which called for all laws to be
voted and decided upon by a majority vote, a concept which was foreign to European
monarchial societies where laws were decided by Kings and Parliaments. The Mayflower
Compact would be the first stepping stone toward liberty and democracy in America.
King Charles would eventually grant an official charter to the “Massachusetts Bay
of New England” in 1629. The king also gave them recognition as a corporate body with
the right to rule the territory in name of England.17
The early rights such as freedom of religion were tested early within the colony
and numerous new settlements were found for the cause of escaping further injustices of
personal freedoms. The first of these defections was John Endicott whose defection was
due to a lack of religious discipline he felt within the Plymouth colony in which he then
settled to Salem. Then there was Roger Williams who was a theologian with many ideas
that preceded his time, many of which conflicted with the established Puritan society of

9. Massachusetts. On his arrival in February of 1631 he was asked to replace a pastor. His
sermons were considered extremely radical by other Puritans. Williams believed in the
separation of church, religious freedom (Amendment I)18
and state as well equal rights
and treatment of all men including the Native Americans (Amendment XIV) in which he
spent much time learning their languages and culture. Williams replied to the controversy
by calling the Church of England and apostate and claiming the English had no right to
take the natives land. In a land dispute between Massachusetts Bay and Salem, Salem
was granted land as long as they excommunicated Williams. In June of 1635 Williams
and his followers arrived in Providence Rhode Island. The first law of the land was to be
equal rights for all men. By 1640 the colony had established both religious freedom and
separation of church and state. Providence became a safe haven for those who still faced
religious persecution such as the Quakers, Jews, and Baptists. In May of 1652 the law in
any colonies making slavery illegal (Amendment XIII) passed in Providence. The colony
established by Roger Williams was indeed beyond its time and exemplified a free society
with liberties and natural rights.
Anne Hutchinson was another example of continued oppression of freethinkers, in
this case due to their sex. Hutchinson was a Puritan preacher who was unable to legally
preach due to being a woman. She migrated in 1634 to Massachusetts and found her self
in immediate controversy for preaching at small sermons at her home. She questioned the
already established religious hierarchy in Massachusetts as well as some of the preaching
of the pastors19
. She preached faith alone in God would lead to salvation which conflicted
with the Puritans who preached salvation through donations to the church. When John

10. Winthrop became governor he had Hutchinson banished. She would go to Rhode Island
and eventually settle in New York where she would be murdered by Siwanoy natives.
Even though Massachusetts would for the most part remain a more Puritan
conservative society, they still established many liberal laws compared to those of
England and other European nations. In December of 1641 Nathanial Ward8
wrote the 98
laws the Massachusetts Bodies of Liberties which was a legal document granting certain
rights, privileges and civil liberties. The first law protects the rights of men from being
tried for any crime not in the document. The second law grants equal justice in the court
for both inhabitants and foreigners. Monopolies are prevented in the 9th
law. The 18th
law
prevents any man from being imprisoned before sentencing. Reasonable fines are set in
the 22nd
law (Amendment VIII). The 42nd
law protected any man from being tried twice
for the same crime (Amendment V). The 46th
law protected men from inhumane
punishment. These laws established were pretty liberal in comparison to the laws of
England and other “Old World” countries.
Though the American colonies for the most part lived in salutary neglect in the
early stages of colonization they would experience a few bumps in the road. The first
major incident would occur in 1651 when England imposed the Navigation Act, this law
made it so no goods could be imported or exported to and from the colonies unless in and
English vessel21
. The colonist response to these acts was a intricate smuggling operation
which would become known as the triangular trade. New England would ship timber, fish
and cotton goods to the French Caribbean islands in exchange for molasses. Back in New
England and primarily Rhode Island the molasses would be distilled into rum, the would
be shipped to the West Indies, exchanged for slaves, brought back to Newport R.I. the

11. empty slave ships would then bring rum to Gold Coast Africa and come back with new
slaves. One of the most famous smugglers in colonial times was John Hancock, who
inherited the business from his Uncle and foster parent Thomas Hancock22
.
The colonial charter of Massachusetts was withdrawn in 1684 due to their lose
interpretation of British law. By December 1686 the British Crown installed Edmund
Andros as the royal governor of the Dominion of New England. He began his reign of
power by levying and collecting taxes which became extremely unpopular. Along with
the influence of the Glorious Revolution the colonist found the power to overturn the
government in April of 1689 and imprisoned Andros. This would be the beginning of
defiance against British authority in the New World.
The colony of New England was a place where the notion of natural rights and
liberties were growing rapidly. The New World was influenced by idealist from Europe
with philosophies that were against the beliefs of those in charge like the monarchies and
papacy. New events were occurring in Europe such as the English Civil War and the
signing of the English Bill of Rights.
Another movement that occurred in Europe and influenced the American colonies
was the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, which coexisted and flourished around the
same time as the beginnings of the American colonies.
New England experienced more prosperity per capita than other parts of the
country such as the south. The richest in the south were the plantation owners while the
tenant farmers and slaves shared none of the profits. In the north how ever there was
more distribution of wealth. Many colonists in New England were merchants, boat
builders, fishers, lawyers, or specialized in numerous other trades. The education system

12. in New England was also exceptional in that the first public school of the colonies was
the Boston Latin School in 1635 a mere 15 years after the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth.
In 1636 Harvard University23
was established still the oldest and one of the most prestige
schools in the United States. Of the first ten colonial schools four were located in the
New England area along with Harvard in 1636 there was, Yale Connecticut 1701, Brown
University Providence 1764, and Dartmouth College New Hampshire 1769. The make up
of the early colonies showed that they were concerned with education, individual success
and progress. The American colonies were shaping up to be a new innovative society
concerned with individual rights, liberties, and freedoms.
Toward the middle of the 18th
century the British once again began to impose on
the colonist supposed new found freedom. These infringements would continually agitate
the colonist and lead to continuous rebellion. Also by the mid 18th
century many of the
colonists were trained in the art of war fare through service in the French and Indian War
that began in 1754. Not only were they trained in military tactics but there gunpowder
and military supplies were increased. They now had the resources to defend themselves
from any outside influences.
The city of Boston was the most famous for defiance against the British. Of the
main cities in the American colonies between 1700 and 1764 there was six riots in
Philadelphia, PA, four in New York and 28 in Boston24
. Only land owners were allowed
to vote which made the hardships fall harder on regular citizens with no ownership of
land. It was said that in Boston the common folk would resort to “voting with their feet”
when there grievances could not be resolved. One of the earlier riots occurred around

13. 1709 in Boston called the Boston Bread Riots. These riots were a result of expensive
bread being sold by merchants for high profits.
Their defiance in Boston did not come only from rioting and protesting they also
defied the British “Navigation Act” with an intricate system of smuggling as I discussed
earlier. In 1759 New England was exporting about 38,000 British pounds worth of goods
while they were importing over 600,000 British pounds worth of goods from England
alone. The profits from the smuggling trade were enormous and Britain began to notice.
The failure of the Navigation Act brought along the Writs of Assistance in 1761
which allowed for the searching of ships as well as household for suspicion alone of
smuggling. This legislature would be mainly ignored for the most part like other British
laws. One famous politician was James Otis who was once an advocate general in the
vice admiralty court whose main job was to prosecute smugglers, found the law to be
unconstitutional and a violation of basic rights25
. Otis is most famously known for his
argument to the Stamp Act Congress in which he argued “No taxation without
representation” which basically meant the colonist should be taxed by Parliament if they
are not directly represented within them.
The Writs of Assistance would be followed by a few new laws in the 1760’s.
There was the Sugar Act of 1764 which had an impact on the southern colonies but not
much on the northern ones. The act that would really agitate the colonist and provoke a
collective rebellion was the Stamp Act of 1765. This affected the colonies as a while
making it a requirements for a stamp to be attached to numerous goods such as
newspapers, legal documents, licenses, as well as playing cards26
. The response from the
Virginia House of Burgesses was a passing of a Virginia Stamp Act Resolution which

14. claimed the British were taxing the colonist without them having the proper
representation in Parliament. When the congressional leader of Massachusetts heard of
the resolution they sent invitations to all colonies to accept the resolution. This is event
was significant in that it was the first time the colonies began to act as one in defiance of
the Stamp Act of 1765. The colonies then began collectively boycotting English goods
and formed the First Continental Congress to collectively plan further resistance against
British tyranny.
Like they had previously done the people of Boston began once again to “Vote
with their feet”. Mobs of men sometimes members of the Sons of Liberty began tarring
and feathering Stamp Act officials. One time a mob probably the Sons of Liberty burnt an
effigy of Andrew Oliver who worked for the Office of Stamp Distribution27
and went as
far as to take the stamp office itself down to the ground. When both the sheriff and
governor came to calm down the mob, the leader ordered his men to take arms against
them. In another incident a mob destroyed the Lt. Governor’s house and destroyed his
collection of valuable manuscripts and books as Hutchinson was an historical writer. The
people of the colonies especially in Boston were furious over the new Stamp Act and
were taking revenge on anyone associated with the new taxes. Royal Officials were being
forced resign and as a result the Stamp Act was appealed, but the Declaratory Act was
signed by Parliament preserving their right to tax the colonies in the future.
During the time of rebellion against the Stamp Act new radical groups had formed
with ideologies of liberty and freedom. One of these groups was the Sons of Liberty.
They were formed in Boston around the summer of 1765 in response to the Stamp Act.
There main function was to oppose any new legislature they thought was against their

15. basic rights and liberties. By the end of 1765 there were Sons of Liberty groups in all the
existing colonies28
. Violence was not their only means of resistance they also had heavy
influence in local newspapers which they would use to spread propaganda against British
tyranny.
One of the most influential members of the Sons of Liberty was Samuel Adams,
one of the elder leaders in the revolutionary effort who was an unsuccessful brewer yet a
brilliant tactician against British tyranny.
In 1767 Charles Townsend took control of the English Parliament and decided to
levy his own Townsend Acts of 1767, which he aimed to punish the colonist for the
uprising against the Stamp Act. A Massachusetts Circular letter was passed in February
of 1768 which pointed out and supported the views of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania a
farmer who debated the difference between internal and external taxes. The letter also
urged the colonist to further boycott British imports; they would suffer a 40 percent loss
from colonial importation.
In response to the boycott and rebellious acts of the colonist the British sent soldiers to
the port of Boston on October 1, 176829
. The colonist would treat the British soldiers as
invaders and tensions would continue to grow. It was typical of the colonist to taunt and
throw stuff at the soldiers while they marched through the streets of Boston. On March 5,
1770 the tension between the colonist and British soldiers would boil over. Numerous
stories surround the events of the Boston massacre, but the end result was the killing of
five colonists after an altercation with British soldiers. There is no conclusive evidence as
to who started the altercation, but the men who died that day would become martyrs to
the cause of American independence. The Boston Massacre would be used as propaganda

16. in local papers and pamphlets. Paul Revere and Samuel Adams would use the event to
portray the British as over exerting their power and tyranny on the colonies through
violence.
The Boston Massacre would be considered the first blood shed of the conflict
between the colonist and the British but the first offensive act by the colonist would come
in June of 1772. The Gaspee Affair was an incident where the HMS Gaspee was trying to
enforce navigation and trade laws when they ran aground off of Narragansett Bay chasing
the smuggling boat Hannah30
. A group of Patriots led by Abraham Whipple came aboard
the grounded ship shot the Lt. Commander and burnt the ship down. Whipple would go
on to become one of the most significant naval officers of the American Revolution.
The turning point that would lead to the British occupying the Boston harbor
would be the throwing of tea into the harbor by Patriots. The British had made a deal with
the East India Company to import tea into the colonies at a cheaper price than previously.
This would lead one to wonder why the colonist would be upset over cheaper tea, well
the fact was that the British would also be making a larger profit off of the tax on the tea
than previously. The colonist decided that the tea would not come on shore. On
December 17 of 1773 a group of men most likely led by the Sons of Liberty boarded the
Dartmouth ship. According to an eyewitness George Hewes31
the men boarded the ship
dressed as Natives brandishing hatchets they broke open the crates of tea and threw them
into the harbor.
The result of the Boston Tea Party would be the Coercive Acts which would be
known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts32
. The British Parliament claimed the laws
passed in 1774 were a result of “growing unrest in the thirteen colonies”, although the

17. laws took a particular aim at the Boston colony. Two of the four acts were the
Massachusetts Government Act and the Boston Port Act. The Massachusetts Government
Act ended all elections in the colony, officials would now be appointed by the British
Crown. The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston from any trade until the losses
from the tea party were compensated for. This act in particular would gain sympathy
from colonies like Virginia and the Carolinas who previously had no concern for New
England affairs. These colonies began to send supplies to New England. The Boston Port
Act unintentionally banded the colonies together. The First Continental Congress would
meet in Philadelphia, PA in part as a result of the Intolerable Acts.
While the First Continental Congress was attempting to find some sort of
resolution to the growing conflict between the British and the colonies, the Patriots in
Massachusetts were stocking up on munitions and gunpowder. On September 1, 1774
260 British regulars were sent by General Thomas Gage to investigate a rumor of
gunpowder supplies being kept in Somerville Massachusetts34
. The rumors had been
correct and the troops seized all the munitions and gun powder. The event would become
known as the Powder Alarm, and would serve as a warning to the British of possible
future conflict. In response to the Powder Alarm the Patriots met in Worcester and urged
one third of all militias to be assembled into minutemen. These minutemen would be
ready to fight and defend their land in a minutes notice. They also established a system of
express riders who would be ready to ride to neighboring towns and warn of impending
British attacks.
At this point the growing conflict between American colonists and the British was
coming to the point where blood shed was becoming a reality. Previously the notion of

18. blood shed or war was not a real possibility from either side, except from the extremist on
each side. The British felt that the rebellious acts of Boston would not spread or come to
anything more than what they considered kids away from home acting out. The British
thought they could quell the resistance with a little show of force. Unfortunately the
animosity in the Boston colony was boiling over and the show of authority by the British
was backfiring into support for the rebellious Bostonians.
The first official blood shed of the American Revolution came on April 18, 1775
after General Thomas Gage decided once again to investigate rumored munitions in the
town of Concord34
. This time the townships would be warned by Paul Revere and Samuel
Prescott. The British troops on this day would meet resistance from the Middlesex militia
comprised of 6,000 men led by Col. James Barrett35
. At the end of the conflict 19 British
officers and 250 soldiers killed as opposed to 90 American Patriots36
.
The Patriots would follow the British troops back to their main stronghold in
Boston. Under the leadership of General Artemas Ward an initial force of 6,000 to 8,000
men surrounded the city from all sides in the Siege of Boston, opposing the force of
4,000 British troops.
The British would eventually receive reinforcements of 4,500 troops and attempt
to leave the city. The attempt would result in the Battle of Bunker Hill actually fought on
Breeds Hill. The British attempted to charge up the hill but were dealt 1,000 casualties37
from 1,500 Patriot marksmen as opposed to 140 Massachusetts militia casualties. The
Patriots would be forced to retreat only after running out of ammunition. Both sides
considered it a win with the British gaining position on the hill while the Patriots killed
more troops.

19. The American Patriots were now at war with the British, and it would be an up
hill battle. In the beginning of the war American Patriot victory looked dim, and under
the leadership of General George Washington they would lose more battles than they
would win, yet in the end they were able to endure and drive the British out of the
colonies.
Resistance to the old conservative way of life had reached full circle in the
American colonies and they would gain their independence from the Old World. The
American colonies would grow to become the epicenter of freedom, liberty and
democracy. The growth of Western civilized mans intellect and desire for natural rights
and liberties, grew into a revolution against the Old World politics of Europe and resulted
in American independence.

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