The American Revolution marked a decisive historical break. Was the authentic start of the Contemporary Age. Without it, the subsequent French revolution would not be understood, nor would the liberal revolutions that spread throughout the West, including, of course, the revolutions of Latin American independence. That is why we will talk to you about the independence of the United States, something that we already talked about specifically at another time.
The American people harbored all the characteristics of what was considered modernity in politics and economics, as well as in culture. This role is expressed in the theory of exceptionalism, which is the idea expressed by Lincoln: “America is a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”, and, therefore, the American mission is that the “government of the people , for the people, and for the people do not perish from the face of the earth» (Cantero García, Gayoso Pardo, 1988: 9). The successive governments acted with such an idea and from there derives a foreign policy always justified as the task of a people that must defend those principles, above all in the American continent itself.
From this point of view, an attempt will be made to first explain the American revolution itself, its characteristics of internal organization and its ideas of foreign policy. What influences and impacts did the North American revolution produce in the Hispanic colonies? And then in the young Spanish American republics? What did the United States mean throughout the 19th century in Latin America? These are some of the questions we intend to answer here.
War and revolution. The factors of the conflict.
The triggers of the war of the Thirteen Colonies against the British metropolis and its transformation into a political revolution is an issue that has been widely discussed in history. However, here only the most outstanding and immediate features will be summarized in this regard.
The first factor is located in the economic prosperity of the Thirteen Colonies throughout the eighteenth century, based on two contradictory ingredients: freedom and slavery (Grant, 2014: 109). Thus, between 1700 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 they arrived in North America half a million immigrantswhich allows us to place the colonies as societies in a state of constant transition.
On the other hand, Britain, once the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, from which it emerged as the great winner, it obtained immense territories in Asia, Africa and America, but that war left the British government on the verge of bankruptcy, with a debt of 130 million of pounds, while the administration of the new possessions obtained would multiply the expenses by five. Prime Minister George Grenville decided to implement a plan of adjustment, not in Great Britain, but in the American colonies with the Revenue Act of 1764, known as Sugar Law, which cut the tariff on foreign molasses imports in half, while taxing new products such as linen, silk, indigo, coffee, lemon and foreign wines. In addition, the list of goods that could only be exported to England was expanded. London thus became an intermediary for colonial products, raising their price and keeping juicy profits.
These were the measures stirred up a sentiment against the metropolis which gave way to the subsequent revolution. As an example of this, mention may be made of the stamp law, approved by Parliament in March 1765. The tax consisted of a stamp -which had to be printed on wills, licences, insurance policies, etc.-, without which all documents lacked legal validity. The tax also fell on newspapers, flyers and even playing cards.
But these factors (the prosperity of the colonies, plus the taxes established by the metropolis) added a factor that should not be underestimated, that of influence of enlightened thought. The influence of thinkers such as Kant, who considered that the Enlightenment passed through applying the Sapere Aude (dare to think) was very strong. The same would happen with the theories of Locke, intellectual father of the previous glorious revolution in England in 1688, plus the thesis of Montesquieu, Rousseau and all the French encyclopedists (Hazard, 1991).
We must also highlight the influence of Thomas Paine who published in 1776 precisely a pamphlet entitled Common sense either commonsense, which was instrumental in the revolution because it explained that a man was worth “all the crowned ruffians who ever lived”; he called King George “the Royal Beast of Great Britain” and stressed the absurdity of running America from such a distant island. (Morison and Steele Commager, 1987: 111.)
In this context, the triggers of the conflict that are set out below occurred.
Of Boston Tea Party (1773) to the War.
The aforementioned revenue law of 1764, known as the sugar law, in addition to the stamp law, became a boomerang for the British government. because they assumed beginning of the unification of some colonies that had been created and prospered in a singular isolation. Representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies met in October 1765 and succeeded in having the measures repealed. It was a decisive precedent.
The conflict resurfaced in 1773, when the English Parliament approved the Tea Law, which gave the British East India Company a monopoly on the sale of that product in the colonies. This meant the displacement of local merchants. When the governor of Boston attempted to force the discharge of a shipment, a group of settlers disguised as natives seized the ships and dumped the merchandise overboard. This episode – known as the Boston Tea Party or Tea Party, was an inadmissible challenge for the British crown, which decided to give an exemplary punishment. However, solidarity soon arose from the other colonies that also boycotted the products.
As early as 1772 there were groups of “patriots” who had set up, through committees of correspondence, a kind of shadow government. It was the starting point for future provincial congresses in Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, and for subsequent conventions in Virginia and Maryland. Were “assemblies of free men» who progressively took the reins of power in each colony in disobedience after the Tea Party against the British government. Thus, the process of unification of these assemblies of each colony took place in the First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. It already had the precedent of the Stamp Act Congress in 1765.
There was no unanimity among the colonists. Some, like Joseph Galloway, representative of Pennsylvania, close to Franklin, was in favor of maintaining the link with the metropolis, but his plan was defeated in the debate they held in October 1774. The supporters of the rupture won and decided to raise a petition to the King, but this was not attended. It was then that the commercial boycott of British products was formalized from December 1, 1774.
In the meantime, in London there were supporters of reconciliation with the colonists, among which Edmund Burke stood out. Moreover, William Pitt, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, proposed the recognition of self-government and the withdrawal of troops from Boston. However, those in favor of imposing British sovereignty in an uncompromising manner won out, even passing new restrictive laws in February 1775. War, therefore, was about to become an inevitable reality. Even while entering a military phase, the conflict had some chance of resolution with the “Conciliatory Resolution” of February 1775, presented by Prime Minister Lord North and the “Olive Branch Petition» which the Second Continental Congress held in July of that year. But neither the British achieved consensus nor was there an effective response in the colonies, since the same month of July 1775 the “Declaration of Taking up Arms” (Declaration of Taking up Arms, July 6) was approved.
The war: alliances and results, 1775-1783.
The first combats already took place in April of the year 1775. In May of the same year, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia assumed the functions of government in the colonies, appointed fourteen generals and organized an army under the command of George Washington. The recruitment of soldiers who were originally farmers or hunters, difficult to organize, began. Nevertheless, Washington succeeded. The facts were not favorable at first for the rebellious colonists against the British, better formed.
Meanwhile, on July 4, 1776, US Congressmen approved the United States Declaration of Independence, much of which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. They decided to act as a State, printed paper money and began diplomatic relations with foreign powers, placing Benjamin Franklin as the first ambassador and head of the secret services. The unity of the Thirteen Colonies against the British became effective. The declaration of independence stated that all men are born equal and have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Also that governments should govern only with the consent of the governed.
It was not a colonial revolt and the United Kingdom saw clearly that it was a crucial war, so he organized an army of the highest caliber to recover what was clearly to be lost. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and reorganized from New York. In the summer of 1776, Sir William Howe succeeded Gage as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in North America, with a force of over thirty thousand men. Great Britain was one of the most powerful world powers, its army was a professional force and it had 50,000 soldiers in North America, to which were added more than 30,000 German mercenaries during the war. In addition, it had a population of about eleven million, compared to two and a half million settlers, a fifth of whom were black slaves.
However, the rebels had five thousand permanent troops, plus the militias of each colony with inexperienced officers. George Washington, the commander in chief, for example, had little combat experience. However, Great Britain was five thousand kilometers away, with communication and power problems for an unconquerable territory due to its enormous extension. To this is added that the enemy was moving on many different fronts and a battle was not enough to win the war. Moreover, the colonists invented a more effective weapon, the Kentucky rifle, highly accurate from more than 80 meters. The settlers in these early battles fought in the form of guerrillas.
George Washington organized the war as defensive, without risking anything, his troops developed skirmishes…