The American Revolution Family Tree
When the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783, the eight years and five months of war was truly a shot heard round the world. The political pundits of the time opined that the U.S. experiment in a republic would fail within a few years. Those writing editorials in English newspapers were confident that in a decade or less, the United States would rejoin the British Empire.
Yet, only six years later, the first domino fell when the French Revolution began in May 1789. The causes of the French Revolution were many – corruption, taxes, the country was bankrupt, poverty, etc. – but its Revolutionary leaders took inspiration from the Thirteen Colonies that now were the United States of America.
We – the United States – put into practice the writings of John Locke (Two Treatises of Government), Thomas Paine (Rights of Man), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract), Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations), Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws), and other philosophers. In 1789, Washington was elected President in February, and the 1st U.S. Congress began passing laws that fleshed out the thinking of the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution.
Our success did not go unnoticed. Our Founding Fathers showed the way. In some ways, you can say, they provided the template.
The first to revolt against its colonial masters were the Haitians in 1781. The loss of 40,000 soldiers and 20,000 civilians in the first attempt to put down the revolution in a 1791- 1793 campaign, plus another 30,000 in 1803. French losses in Haiti convinced Napoleon to sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S., and in 1804, Haiti became independent.
France, which loaned the Continental Congress money, shipped us precious gunpowder and weapons, and deployed both its Navy and Army to help, could not afford to do so. The Seven Years’ War bankrupted the country, and Louis XVI’s support of the Patriot cause further weakened France’s social contract with its king.
Between 10 and 12,000 French soldiers participated in the American Revolution along with about 22,000 sailors. When they returned home, they had been exposed to the ideals of the Patriot cause.
Of the four European powers with large overseas colonies – France, Spain, the Netherlands, and England, Spain had Mexico and most of Central and South America. Led by Simón Bolívar, Venezuela was the first to win its independence in 1811. Bolívar is considered to be the father of the independence movements that ended Spain’s empire in the Western Hemisphere.
Venezuela was quickly followed by Colombia in 1814, and Argentina in 1816. Five years later, 1821 became a watershed year for successful independence movements, as Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua became independent. Brazil declared its independence in 1822, Peru in 1824, Bolivia and Uruguay in 1825.
In just 42 years, the Spanish empire collapsed, and Portugal lost its South American colony. These changes did not go unnoticed in Washington, D.C. By 1814, we had beaten the Brits in the War of 1812 because the U.S. was still independent. Madison’s successor, James Monroe, who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, wanted to fire a warning shot across the bows of Spain and the U.K., warning them not to try to reimpose their rule on the now-independent nations.
Thus, what became the Monroe Doctrine evolved from Monroe’s annual address to Congress in 1823. Today, we call that report the State of the Union, and the President is required to make this report as per Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
Realize that, compared to the U.K., Spain, and France, we were a military pigmy. Yet, the Brits, who were the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world (the modern term is superpower), didn’t want to take us on again. When Monroe made his speech to Congress, the British leaders who were in power when England lost America and wanted it back were again out of power. Its new leaders now realized that it was better to be our friend than our enemy.
What began on April 19, 1775, in Lexington, MA, had spawned a legacy of revolutions that turned the world upside down.
1922 portrait of Simón Bolívar by Luis Enrique Toro Moreno.