The Independence of the United States of America.

The enlightened ideas flourish in the 1700s, but halfway through the century they had got limited success in changing any political system in Europe. The bourgeoisie defending these ideals, needed to break the moulds of the class society based on the three estates, in order to gain political presence. This happened for the very first time, not in Europe, but in the 13 British colonies of northern America, from 1765 to 1783. The American colonists of British origins enjoyed a reasonable selfgovernment due to the long distance from England. Besides, as new communities, there were no class privileges and therefore a greater equality prevailed. By 1760 over 2 million European colonists and 300,000 black slaves lived in the 13 colonies. In the southern ones the economy was based on agricultural plantations while in the north the manufactures were more usual. In theory the colonists had the same rights that their fellow citizens in Great Britain but they were not really taken into account in the Parliament of London.

New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

Since 1765, the taxes the British Parliament had passed throughout the years were increasingly damaging the relations between the American colonists and the British authorities. Although the Brits moved backwards in many taxes, the one on the tea remained intact. On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists boarded the ships disguised as American Indians and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbour. This act of protest is known in American history as the Boston Tea party. The British reaction meant the closing of the Boston harbour and the passing of the Intolerable Acts that suppressed the autonomy of the colonists and reinforced the clampdown. Many colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) broke out the following year, eventually leading to the creation of an independent United States of America. When the Crown tried to repress the situation she crashed with an army of colonists led by George Washington. The Americans were not alone. Once the war broke out, they received the support of France, Spain and The Netherlands, the old European enemies of Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the delegates of the Second Continental Congress, announced in Philadelphia that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, were no longer a part of the British Empire, and therefore they solemnly proclaimed a Declaration of Independence, based on the enlightened principles. By 1783, the victory of the colonists in the battle of Yorktown meant the end of the war and the British recognition of the independence of its former colonies, the United States of America, in the Treaty of Paris (1783). The delegates of the free new states accepted in 1787 a Federal Constitution (Glossary 1) that respected the diversity of the States. They were considered autonomous for their internal affairs and at the same time they shared some common institutions that ensured the equality of all citizens before the law and the separation of powers (a representative Congress, a government led by a President and a Supreme Court of Justice.) The Constitution also enclosed a declaration of rights that guaranteed the individual liberties and the private property. In 1789, General George Washington was elected the First President of the United States. He was the most famous but not the only patriot involved in the independence of the colonies. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton are known in American history as the Founding Fathers. The United States of America were born as the first State without aristocrats or monarchs and as a country based on the Popular Sovereignty where everybody had the same rights (though initially excluding the Slaves, Indians and Women). It was an ideal of progress for the European liberals and for the rest of American colonies of that time. Nowadays the system still maintains most parts of its original structure, for this reason the USA remains the oldest stable democracy in the world. QUESTIONS: 1. When was the Declaration of Independence of the USA proclaimed? 2. What kind of ideology was it based on? GLOSSARY: 1. Constitution. A constitution is a set of laws (codified as a written document or not) that a People have made and agreed upon for government. A constitution enumerates and limits the powers and functions of a political entity. A constitution defines the fundamental political principles, and establishes the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of a government. By limiting the government's own reach, most constitutions guarantee certain rights to the people.