The successful 1776 revolt against British colonial rule has been hailed as an extraordinary step for mankind towards freedom. But rather than a triumph for human rights and liberty, a critical lens reveals the revolution to be at least in part driven by the propertied classes urge to preserve the institution of slavery and to continue expanding westward. The worsening of conditions for enslaved and indigenous peoples in America after the so-called “triumph against tyranny” is indicative of this.
Government propaganda about American ‘values’ obscures the real motivations that drive U.S. policy- from the founding of this nation up to present day. But through a critical analysis, the American Revolutionary War, the Monroe Doctrine, the Spanish-American War and U.S. foreign policy today, are revealed to be what they are.
When the smoke screen is cleared, U.S. policy is revealed to be largely driven by an urge for profit for the capitalist class.
In the case of the American Revolutionary War, the call for freedom was a smokescreen to material reasons behind the war, as evidenced by the worsening of conditions for enslaved Africans and for indigenous peoples in North American after the founding of the United States.
The African Slave trade was a lucrative business for merchants and slave owners. It can even be argued that it was the fuel that provided for the takeoff of capitalism in the 1600's. By the 18th century, it was fundamental to the economy of the British colonies in North America. Profits from the slave trade not only benefited industries like the tobacco and sugar companies- but also developed industries such as banking, insurance and shipping in the 13 colonies. So when the 1772 Somerset v Stewart case outlawed chattel slavery in England, the plantation class and other colonists in Britain’s colonies became anxious about what that would mean for them financially. The case did not outlaw slavery in the British overseas territories, but still, this shift was enough to stir a separatist sentiment among the colonists.
Another factor that led to the American Revolutionary War was the Proclamation of 1763. With this proclamation, Britain placed limits on westward expansion in the U.S. They did this to resolve border conflicts and because of the financial strain the Seven Year War had placed on them. But American settlers, and particularly the landowning elite, wanted to continue expanding west. They viewed the indigenous people of North America as obstacles to their wealth. This view is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which attacks the British king for supporting “merciless Indian savages.”
So as can be seen, the American Revolutionary War seems to have been largely driven by colonists seeking to preserve the institution of slavery and continue expanding westward to indigenous lands.
The romantic rhetoric of “liberty and justice for all” is revealed to be the farce that it was, simply based on the subsequent treatment of indigenous people and Africans on the North American continent by the U.S. government in the centuries that followed.
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