THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

             In the year 1763, Great Britain stood victorious in North America
             after sweeping France from the continent with the assistance of the
             American colonists, and few would have predicted the end of the long ties
             between the English Crown and the American colonies. Yet by the last months
             of 1774, "only those with closed eyes and minds could avoid the conclusion
             that the Americans were headed toward open and armed rebellion against
             Great Britain and the powers of the English monarchy" (McDowell, 45).
             The Americans, however, did not rush into a revolution, for before
             the final breach England and the colonies suffered under a long series of
             conflicts that steadily grew in strength and importance, and "during the
             twelve years of disagreements preceding the engagement of arms at Lexington
             and Concord, the clashes between the mother country of England and the
             American colonies waxed and waned in intensity" (Reeder, 56).
             The thirteen American colonies, with over two million citizens which
             included some 500,000 black African slaves, formed a diverse group of
             political, cultural, economic and religious entities grouped together in a
             relatively narrow band of farms, cities and plantations that stretched
             along the Atlantic coastline from Canada to Florida and interspersed with
             settlements that reached westward towards the Appalachian mountain barrier.
             Most of the colonies had developed from 17th century settlements that
             represented attempts by the English Crown or numerous British entrepreneurs
             to set up strategic or profit-making outposts in the New World. By the
             latter half of the 1700's, the colonies displayed distinctive regional and
             individual differences based on topography, economics, politics and social
             To the north lay the four colonies of New Englandâ€"Massachusetts,
             Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Islandâ€""which had been founded
             ...

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