Consequences of the American Revolution

1Why this matters

Consequences are the results of an event, both immediate and long-term, intended and unintended. The American Revolution produced the world's oldest written national constitution still in use and inspired revolutions across the Atlantic. It also left glaring injustices in place. A good historian weighs both, and this lesson shows you how.

2Consequences for America

• Independence. By the Treaty of Paris (1783) Britain recognised the United States, with land stretching west to the Mississippi River.
• A new system of government. The first framework, the Articles of Confederation (1781), proved too weak. The Constitution was drafted in 1787 and took effect in 1789, creating a federal republic with a separation of powers between Congress (legislature), the President (executive) and the courts (judiciary). George Washington became the first President in 1789.
• A Bill of Rights (1791) protected freedoms such as speech, religion and a fair trial.
• Loyalists, colonists who had supported Britain, lost property; tens of thousands left, many for Canada.
• Economic freedom from British trade controls.

3Consequences for people left out

• Enslaved Africans. The Declaration said "all men are created equal", yet slavery continued. The northern states abolished slavery gradually by 1804, but in the South it lasted until 1865. Thousands of enslaved people escaped to the British lines during the war in search of freedom.
• Native Americans. Britain handed their lands to the United States without consulting them, and settlers pushed west. The Revolution began a long period of loss for Native American nations.
• Women could not vote or hold office, although the ideas of the Revolution encouraged later campaigns for women's rights.

4Consequences for the wider world

• France. French soldiers returned home with revolutionary ideas, and the cost of the war deepened France's debt crisis. Both helped cause the French Revolution of 1789, whose Declaration of the Rights of Man drew on the American example.
• Haiti and Latin America. The example of a colony winning independence inspired the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), in which enslaved Africans overthrew French rule, and the Latin American wars of independence.
• Britain lost its most valuable colonies and turned its attention to India, Africa and elsewhere. Having lost America as a destination for convicts, it began sending them to Australia in 1788.
• Africa: Sierra Leone. Britain had promised freedom to enslaved people who joined its side. Many of these Black Loyalists were resettled in Nova Scotia, and in 1792 more than a thousand of them sailed to Sierra Leone, where they helped found Freetown. Their descendants are part of the Krio people.
• Ideas of self-rule. The principle that a people may choose its own government was later used by colonised peoples, including African nationalists, against European empires.

Worked example: a "to what extent" answer

Question: To what extent did the American Revolution bring liberty to the people of America?

For free white men, especially property owners, it brought a great deal: independence, elected government, a written constitution and a Bill of Rights. But for enslaved Africans, who were about a fifth of the population, it brought little immediate liberty, since slavery survived in the South until 1865. Native Americans lost land and independence, and women gained no political rights. So the Revolution brought liberty to a minority at once, while proclaiming principles that others would later use to claim their own freedom. It succeeded only to a limited extent.

Practice

Solution. Any three of: independence recognised in 1783; a federal Constitution (1787, in force 1789); separation of powers; an elected President, with Washington first in 1789; the Bill of Rights (1791).

Solution. Its ideas of rights and self-government inspired French reformers and returning soldiers, and France's spending on the war worsened the royal debt, which triggered the crisis of 1789.

Solution. Britain promised freedom to enslaved people who fought for it. After the war many of these Black Loyalists were taken to Nova Scotia, and in 1792 over a thousand of them settled in Sierra Leone, helping to found Freetown.

Solution. It proclaimed equality and liberty, but slavery continued in the South, Native Americans lost their lands, and women and poor men were excluded from voting.