The Economic and Identitarian Roots of the American Independence Movement

The prehistory of the American independence movement is characterized by a multi-layered interplay of economic dependencies and changing social identities. Long before the open outbreak of the revolution, structures formed in the North American colonies that increasingly strained the relationship with the British motherland. It was an erathe upheaval in which traditional ties to modern economic realities collided and a new self-confidence awoke across the Atlantic.

The Fateful Currency Laws and Their Consequences

Although the inhabitants of the North American colonies were considered wealthy, they lacked real wealth in terms of available cash. While the Spanish and French ruling houses operated their own mints in their Latin American possessions, such institutions were completely absent in the British territories. This deficiency led to a chronicUndersupplying the economy with capital and partly forcing people to use Spanish coins instead of the British currency. To alleviate the greatest hardship, the individual colonies issued their own paper currencies, which, however, quickly gained the reputation of being inflationary and worthless. Given this precarious situation, British merchants and bankers pushed the government intoLondon to invalidate the colonial means of payment.

Economic recovery and growing self-confidence

In 1751 and 1764, the British government enacted corresponding laws that effectively suspended these fiat currencies. The pressure from the London financial world resulted less from anti-American resentment, but rather from the fear of the donors to sit on completely worthless paper. From the colonists’ point of view, however, these laws meant aDisaster, as they further exacerbated economic underfunding. American agriculture and burgeoning industry thus became completely dependent on the loans of British donors. At the same time, the financial circles in London had a massive interest in the prosperity of the American market and directed high investments into the colonies.

Tradition and modernity in an unstable time of upheaval

These generous loans significantly boosted American production and consumption. In 1770, the colonies should by no means be imagined as backward provinces on the edge of a global empire. Rather, they were emerging regions that could compete with the imperial center in many ways and some inter-imperial competitors were alreadythis economic development had a double effect, because it promoted the emergence of a transatlantic upper class. At the same time, it fostered the development of a specific self-confidence among the colonial elites, which could be directed against British domination in times of crisis.

The vague understanding of British identity

The people in Boston, Philadelphia, New York or Virginia no longer wanted to play a subordinate role in the long run. The socio-economic analysis confirms the thesis of the ambivalent period of upheaval, which was so characteristic of the environment of the revolution. As in the UK, traditional and modernising processes ran side by side and interacted withoutthat it would have come to a real balance. Although this instability did not yet form a sufficient basis for a revolution, it created the necessary conditions for it. The longer this unstable state lasted, the sooner it could lead to smaller or larger social explosions.

Protestantism, freedom and the distinction from Catholicism

The social and economic detonator was already glowing, which was even more evident on the level of identity. If there was anything that connected the colonies to each other and to the motherland and separated them at the same time, it was the understanding of the common British identity. No one could precisely define what this concept actually meant, as it mainly focuses on socialPractices and did not represent a unified theory. Depending on political opinion, social status or regional origin, completely different ideas could be associated with the predominantly positive feeling of belonging to this community. However, this concept must be prevented from being hastily equated with the liberal nationalism of the 19th century.

The influence of the Enlightenment and the ancient role models

Although there has been a glowing all-British patriotism on both sides of the Atlantic since the 1750s at the latest, dynastic and religious loyalties persisted at the same time. The distinction from the Catholic powers of France and Spain was one of the central elements of this sense of belonging. This attitude included the dualistic notion that only theBritons are able to save the world from the tyranny of Catholic absolutism. Freedom and Protestantism went hand in hand in this idea and could include early approaches to specific racism. However, it remained completely unclear which form of Protestantism was actually meant, as different faiths struggled for the sovereignty of definition.

Regional differences and the fault lines of society

For all those involved, however, it was clear that Catholicism had no connection to the idea of freedom. The concept of freedom itself remained vague, referring in the foreground to the tradition of the rights of the free Englishman, which meant the absence of absolutist arbitrary rule. In the middle classes, the reception of the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment was added, whichwas able to integrate divergent forms of Protestant religiosity. Just as important as the reading of important philosophers was the reception of antiquities, which enjoyed unbroken popularity until the end of the 19th century. In Britain and North America, Roman antiquity in particular was regarded as an imperial model that people wanted to emulate and surpass.

Expansion into the disputed border areas

Depending on the social status, certain architectural and artistic fashions could express the common sentiment. Finally, the importance of the common English language, which has been systematically enforced in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, must not be forgotten. The question of whether this identity concept should be understood as inclusive or exclusive has never been properly clarified,which is why everyone was able to interpret the concept according to their own taste. Even the ideological divides differed from region to region and ranged from sectarian conflicts to racial segregation. The idea of common belonging thus not only united those who invoked it, but also made clear the fault lines that crossed society.

The 100-year conflict and the path to crisis

The Seven Years’ War intensified the controversies already created and fueled the glowing fuses. He reversed the overwhelming victory of all the British in 1763 and became a devastating defeat for the world empire. He was only able to do this because he had brought such an overwhelming victory to the British side that for the first time North Americathe focus of geostrategic action. The conflict began in 1754 with an ill-considered action in the Ohio Valley, triggered by the land hunger of the British settlers. Since the founding of the colonies, they have been in a power struggle with the Spanish and French possessions in North America.

The Role of Indigenous Peoples and French Colonial Policy

The surrounding indigenous tribes, who formed their own alliance systems and were integrated into trade networks, were quickly included in this struggle. In particular, the profitable trade in beaver fur would have been unthinkable without the indigenous hunters, while they sought their advantage in cooperation with the European powers. France had a clearly regulated legal relationshipto his colonies and preferred a centralized colonial policy with precisely defined rights. The French bases were primarily military-secured trading posts in which the feudal feudal system and the Catholic hierarchy were consistently implemented. French rangers and missionaries lived closely with the indigenous peoples, spoke their language andtolerated intermarriage, making them more popular allies than the British.

British land hunger and the path to conflict

The British, on the other hand, had good relations with the dreaded Iroquois confederation, while the French presence in the Ohio Valley was more than annoying from both a British and indigenous point of view. The colonial British urgently needed new land to reduce social tensions and make a lot of money through land speculation. That is why a company was founded in 1747,in which the most influential landowners of the colony were involved and for which the young George Washington worked as a surveyor. In the summer of 1753, the British Trade Authority allowed British settlers to settle in the Ohio Valley, further fuelling the conflict with France. This shows that the British government at that time still lacked the fear of anotherExpansion of the mainland colonies would strengthen their will for independence.

The unstoppable drive to the West

However, before official settlers appeared, traders from Virginia flocked to the land that now includes the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as well as western Pennsylvania. This region was then widely known as a dark and bloody ground on which the different interests of power relentlessly clashed.