Colony/Rebellion/Republic: 18th Century North America/U.S.

The eighteenth century proved to be a deeply transformative era for North America. By the turn of the nineteenth century, direct French influence was all but eradicated from the eastern region of the continent and diverse religious influences challenged definitions of church power, facilitating a growing democratic impulse. The British colonies of North America declared their independence from the Crown and raised arms to do so. Those same colonies-turned-states then altered themselves from generally autonomous members of a loose confederation into a more politically centralized and dynamic constitutional republic. Ideas and actions cultivated an age of social, intellectual, and religious evolution which was influenced by Enlightenment notions of empirical science, a growing diversity of religious thought, and radical expressions of political philosophy that threw off monarchical rule in favor of republican civic virtue. As often transpires in history, the many figures who made these transformations possible did so, at times, unwittingly, and often did not envisage the democratic and anti-aristocratic tendencies which emerged in the nineteenth century. The American Revolution was not merely a war of independence. It was a revolution informed by and resulting in immense shifts in economic, political, and religious culture.