Independent United States Shed Colonial Past Begin

¶ … independent United States shed colonial past begin a direction, politically

Political and Economic Unity

In order to properly understand the methodology employed by the newly independent United States used to effectively shed its colonial past and begin a new direction politically and economically, one must first understand how the country operated on these two fronts as a series of British colonies prior to the waging of the Revolutionary War. Politically, the colonies existed as an extension of the British crown, were governed by the monarchy which ruled the foreign kingdom, and had little say in matters that were mandated by Britain. The colonists preferred a form of salutary neglect in terms of British involvement with their daily political lives, but when Britain intervened (particularly in the years leading up to the revolution) in the daily affairs of the colonialists, there was little they could actually do about it -- save revolt. Economically, of course, the colonies initially functioned as a mere extension of the British authority which they operated under. The popular practices of mercantilism fueled the triangle trade which benefitted Britain as much as the colonies (particularly those existent in the New England area), while even the sale of agricultural products such as tobacco, indigo, and rice in the southern colonies was typically carried out in the hopes of gaining manufactured goods -- the vast majority of which came from England. Politically and economically, then, the colonies existed with a fair amount of autonomy (that could be readily revoked by England upon demand) that largely served the motives of British interests.

Following the Revolutionary War, however, the fledgling nation of the United States inexorably exchanged the autonomous operations of its "colonies" (which were now formal states) for a solidarity and hegemony that would grow to become unrivaled throughout the globe in the centuries to come. Much of this unity, of course, could be traced to the writing and implementation of the Constitution, which was an important political document both literally and figuratively since it represented the ideological and literal shift of thought from an active "states' rights" form of government -- which was typified and reinforced by the Articles of Confederation and issued a great deal of rights to individual states at the expense of forsaking the power of the federal government -- to one which was federally based. The importance of this ideological shift should not be underestimated, particularly in purely political terms in which the old monarchy form of government imposed by Britain was discarded in favor of a system of "checks and balances" that allowed for governmental authority to be shared between three separate entities: the judicial, the legislative, and the executive branches of government. The power of each branch was limited by the authority of the others; for example, the president (as head of the executive branch) could veto laws recommended by the legislative branch, while Congress could impeach the president. This form of democracy was a distinct departure from the form of monarchy which previously governed the United States when it was a series of colonies under British rule.

Economically, then, the United States was able to distance itself from its colonial history by founding a national banking institution, the Bank of the United States, in 1791 during the presidency of George Washington (who was president during the ratification of the Constitution in 1790). The founding of the national bank, which was initially championed by Alexander Hamilton, reinforced the notion of national solidarity by buttressing the conception of a strong central government -- which was of course diametrically opposed to the loose affiliation of colonies and even states that preceded the bank's inception. The fact that the all states' debt was assumed into the national debt further clarified this idea, and can be regarded as somewhat typical of Washington's presidency since he widely urged the new nation to avoid partisan politics and to take a neutral approach to foreign affairs. However, the tendency towards partisanship (particularly in terms of political parties) was certainly manifest during the presidency of John Adams, which was characterized by feuding between the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans. Economically, however, the United States was able to utilize its considerable agricultural and maritime resources to enhance its own solidarity, instead of doing so for the benefit of a foreign power such as England.