American War for Independence, 1775-1783: Revolution or Civil War?

Abstract

The vision of "the Spirit of 1776" evokes a pride in our nation, and reinforces America's independent nature. What if this view of the war is incorrect? What if a large number of colonists were against the war, or were, at best, indifferent? What if the tyrant king of England was not really a tyrant? Does this change our identity as a nation? Does it change the reasons for which we fought the war for independence? This paper will argue that it does. This war was not a revolution, but a civil war fought between British subjects overland, and the desire to explore and settle the land as the colonists saw fit. There was, quite possibly, nothing revolutionary in the causes or nature of the war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 04, 2010
Accession Number
ADA604370

Entities

People

  • James D. Keith

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • American Revolution
  • Civil War
  • Civil War (United States)
  • Commerce
  • Governments
  • Identities
  • Law
  • Marine Corps
  • Natural Resources
  • New England
  • New York
  • North America
  • Political Systems
  • Revolutions
  • United States
  • War

Fields of Study

  • History

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.