American Revolution

The American Revolution was a long and strenuous battle for freedom from Britain. It all started with a long war known as the 7 years war or the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. The war gave Britain colonial dominance in North America and there were many major events to follow. Some of these events included settlement of the new colonies, Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and the famous Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was passed by British Parliament in 1765 and required American Colonist to pay a small tax on all paper goods that were printed. In rebellion of this act a Stamp Act Congress was formed. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City and was the first gathering of many representatives from different colonies to help devise a protest against the taxing. This meeting would later help create a continental congress.

Settling of the new colonies was growing with popularity during this time. This gave many people cheap land, religious freedoms and profit. Many colonies came across Native Americans and Spanish and French settlements. Many popular ports opened up as well as historical colonies such as Jamestown, Roanoke, and Plymouth were founded. Each Colony had its own unique resources and each capitalized as the colonies grew larger in population.

With all the rebellion and freedom from Britain Thomas Paine introduced "Common Sense". In his novel he argues for American Independence and is an influential leader. He addresses that society in that time is everything it should be and the government is just trying to protect the society from their own ideas. Thomas Paine educated people about the problems they had with the British and how over controlling they were with the colonies. Thomas Paine gained international recognition for his novel and led people to start thinking about the revolution.

The colonies were in a distraught and needed a united plan that could help them fight as one. This is how the Albany Plan of Union was proposed by Benjamin Franklin. He stated that if the colonies did not join together to fight the French that they would die off and be defeated. The Albany Congress had support behind this plan. The plan was rejected because of any suspicion of taxing and many of the British Government disliked the idea of giving more power to the colonies. This led to an Articles of Confederation later on and most colonies were too independent of each other to think of the states as a whole.

The independence in the new world needed a strong, central government. The beginning of the United States government started with the influence of the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was created to limit powers of a government and preserved basic legal rights to the people. This is considered groundwork for our democracy in America because our democracy is still based upon these rights. This gives the common people ability to see and understand their rights. With the basics laid out for a strong central