Effects of the American Revolution
One of the earliest changes that started to occur in the society was egalitarianism, which is the belief in the equality of all people. During the Revolutionary War, wealthy military men had respected and joined forces with poverty stricken men who were also fighting for the Colonists cause. After the war, the thought that no matter what your financial background was, but how hard you worked, was beginning to be more popular. However, a consistent fact is that slaves and Native Americans were still looked upon to be property and savages, respectively.
The North continued to look down upon Slavery while the South didn’t change their stance at all. Slavery was too important to the South to begin talks about abolishing it or even limiting it. That didn’t stop the North from attempting to put a halt on slavery, though. Well after the Revolutionary War, the North had begun to free slaves by the thousands. About 20,000 slaves were freed following the war. The South continued their ways and the North continued to look down upon them.
The Revolutionary War had a major affect politically on the Colonists, mainly the women. Prior to the War they had no rights except to raise families, but they did gain little rights afterwards. Women gained the power to be able to divorce their husbands if they chose to, something they never could’ve done before. However, this power was only available in certain colonies and the woman would lose most of her property to the man. During the war, some women were actually fighting alongside the men and some women were helping the soldiers to regain their health.
This caused ideas about women to change following the war, even though they only gained some rights this would help them in the future. Another political affect on the colonies from the War was that now, they could have their own powerful central government. Instead of relying on the King of Britain, they would have their own leader who would turn out to be General George Washington. Washington would be the new powerful leader that a newly formed nation would need.
The Native Americans were affected by the War as well. However, like most times it was in a negative way. Due to the war, more people had become settlers looking for a place to start a community. Only these places had already been developed by Native American tribes. Sadly, these communities were destroyed by the settlers. Native Americans were losing their homes and had a hard time finding peace in a new nation in which they were looked upon as evil savages.
As a result of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress found it extremely difficult to pay the colonialist troops. They had to resort to selling bonds to other governments such as France to be able to pay their troops. The Congress began to print paper money which they called Continentals. However when the paper money became too common, the cost of it sunk and inflation began to occur.
Sugar and beef prices soared to as high as double what it normally was in some colonies. Another new business factor for the colonialists was that they no longer had to go through Great Britain for trade. Mercantilism had ended once America gained their independence and Britain no longer had them to force their products into the markets. The War also allowed American ships to be independent, not being forced to contain English sailors and equipment on board. America was completely independent from Britain after the Revolutionary War.
The Revolutionary War had a great affect on the social, political and economic parts of Colonial America. Even though the colonialists had gained their independence, they also found themselves in debt and African slaves and Native Americans found themselves left out of the “big picture” of a free society.
