This chapter dealt with the establishment of an independent political order on the North American continent called the United States of America. Colonial disaffection was high regarding the perceived British encroachment on individual and colonial liberties through such endeavors as the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act and the Intolerable Acts. Americans began to offer organized resistance through such conglomerations as the Stamp Act Congress, the Boston Tea Party and Massacre, as well as the two Continental Congresses, which ultimately led to the Revolutionary War and its Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
After the war, the first national government, the Confederate Congress under the Articles of Confederation, was deemed ineffective and inefficient as a governing instrument. This was especially true in the critical period of the 1780s, which saw Daniel Shays’ Rebellion against the propertied interests in Massachusetts. The Annapolis Convention of 1786 called for a Constitutional Convention to strengthen the central government. The Convention went far beyond that, crafting a new political order typified by limited government through separation of powers in a system of checks and balances. Crucial compromises were made regarding representation in the Congress, presidential selection, and socio-economic regional interests, thus assuring the creation of a Constitution of the United States which has remained in place since its ratification in 1789. |
