The momentous years between 1775 and 1800

¶ … 1775 and 1800 - the American Revolution. The American Revolution proved to be one of the most momentous times in history. It helped create a new, vital nation, it gave Americans freedom from tyranny, and it allowed the people to create a new republic that would become one of the greatest nations on Earth.

The American Revolution resolved the issue of American Independence and freedom from tyranny by Great Britain, but there were many more issues that the colonists were fighting for when they revolted against England. They were fighting against taxation and monopoly, and England's increasing control over the colonies, from quartering British soldiers in private households to outlawing public meetings, and installing a soldier as governor of Massachusetts. The Americans wanted control over their own lives, and they wanted to be free of a controlling monarchy that had no concept of what really went on in the colony. As the textbook authors note, "The alternative to government by consent was becoming no British authority at all in the colony" (Murrin, et al. 174). The Revolution helped create a new nation, with new resolves, new impetus, and new hope for the future, and it helped create a democracy out of a colonial aristocracy.

The Constitution resolved numerous issues for a fledgling nation. It basically set up the operation of government through laws and articles, and it created the separation of powers, Congress, judicial system, and government we have today. It resolved the issues of each state governing itself with its own constitution and issuing its own money, and it solved many of the questions that had been plaguing the country since it had won independence from Great Britain. The text notes, "The enumeration of congressional powers became lengthy and explicit and included taxation, the regulation of foreign and interstate commerce, and the 'catchall' necessary and proper' clause" (Murrin, et al. 217). In other words, the Constitution resolved just about every issue facing the new nation, from how it would fund the government, to who would lead it and who would govern it. It set down states' rights, and gave the new country a framework to use to build itself into a great nation. The text calls the Constitution a "blueprint" that the new government would use to build from, and that is what it was, a blueprint to begin the foundations of a new nation. It did not settle all the issues the new nation faced, but it was a starting point that could be altered when necessary, through a vote of the people, of course" (Murrin, et al. 222).

The framers did at least one thing that seemed to anticipate future tensions and social conflicts. They did not free the slaves in the Constitution, and they did not address the Native Americans as citizens, or at all. These two groups would come to represent the limitations of the Constitution and the shortsightedness of the framers in not addressing these issues. Not addressing the Native Americans allowed the government to control them as they wished, and remove them from their lands, which they did as the country grew westward. Not addressing the slave issue, and allowing it to continue in the South, eventually led to the Civil War and the separation of the states, a low point in American history.