What changed and what stayed the same in the era of the American Revolution between 1775 and 1789? Just how revolutionary was it?.
Although the colonies of British North America, on July 4 1776 felt strongly enough about the incompetence of British rule, to declare themselves independent of such rule, and fight a war to demonstrate such sentiment, the resulting state created from their revolutionary endeavours, and indeed, the revolution itself, seemed a mere step away, politically, from that of the state they were rebelling against. This step, however small it may have seemed in regard to internal and external policy, or even if the reasons of the colonists for stating and enforcing their independence seem a small ideological progression from that of the British government, such policy and ideology was nevertheless strong enough to bring an end to British rule in the colonies and provide an ideological base for a new government. That ideology in turn providing lasting implications that worked to shape the Government of the United States of America into a new entity among Europe's monarchies. .
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." .
With these words, Thomas Jefferson embarked on a literary journey into the evils of the institution of British rule in the American colonies. The crux of his argument, however, was that the British treated the American colonies as a commodity, trying to keep the colonies in a state of dependence through taxes and tariffs, while milking them of their resources.