So what was the world like in 1776? Why were the American Revolution and
Declaration of Independence so remarkable after all?
Europe was dominated by empires, ruled by kings, emperors
and sultans. The great powers were Great
Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Turkey. Most were ruled by absolute monarchs,
beholden to no elected assembly who could curb their power and authority.
Democracy was, to some extent, a historical curiosity. The Athenians (Greeks) had installed democratic
government that ultimately failed; so too the Romans. The Italian city-states had short-lived
republics, but each had fallen either into despotism or had been overrun by the
armies of France. The Pope in Rome was
not only a spiritual authority, he controlled territory and fielded
armies.
China and Japan were closed societies and mostly unknown to
Europeans. Descendents of Genghis Khan
were losing their grip on India. The
African interior was almost totally unexplored.
Australia had just been discovered and would be colonized by convict
immigrants. North and South America were
vast wildernesses with only the coasts and great river valleys settled.
People believed in demons and witches; deep, dark woods were
terrifying. Travel was very dangerous
after dark, only candles and torches provided light. Medicine was crude by our standards -
intentional bleeding of the patient was a common treatment for all kinds of
ailments.
Yet, it was also an era of great men and women. Mozart, Beethoven and Napoleon were
alive. Catherine the Great ruled Russia. Edmund Burke, the Scottish philosophers Adam
Smith and David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, the influential German philosopher, were
in their prime.
To our good fortune Jefferson and Madison, Adams, Franklin,
and Hamilton can also be counted among the great. But in the imagination of the age, George
Washington, was the indispensable man. It
was his leadership and example as commander-in-chief, and later at the
Constitutional Convention, that inspired the revolutionary generation.
Where did our founders look for inspiration? Well, to lessons of history about the rise
and fall of nations. They especially
studied Greek and Roman history, for the ancients’ triumphs and failures. They read and studied the influential Greek philosophers
Plato and Aristotle who wrote so often about politics.
In the crucial years of the 1770s and 1780s, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws helped guide those
who would have to create a new government if the revolution was a success. During the Constitutional Convention and the
lively debate over ratification that followed, Montesquieu was a crucial
authority on republics.
So, in a world of empires and absolute monarchs, at the edge
of a vast continent, our forebears set out to overthrow the authority of Europe’s
most powerful nation.
Between 1775 and 1776, armed conflict with Britain broke out,
and still there was wide disagreement on independence. Many remained loyal to Britain. It was not only the long odds of defeating Britain
that caused uncertainty. Declaring
independence was treason, punishable by hanging.
Yet, our founders took the momentous step and announced their
independence from Britain boldly to the world: “all men are created equal”,
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, governments “deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed”.
For this new nation, the United States of America,
sovereignty would reside in the citizen, not in kings and aristocrats. To this Declaration of Independence 56 men
signed their names and pledged “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our
sacred Honor”.
Something to think about this July 4th.
