Revolution and Radical Reform
How radical was the American Revolution? Historians are divided over this important question, taking varying positions on the extent and nature of change during the Revolutionary era. But most historians agree that the American Revolution did result in sweeping changes or radical reforms that had an enduring effect on American politics, culture, and society. These reforms can be divided into three categories: independence, constitutions and government, and social change.
Independence
The Declaration of Independence embodied the first radical reform of the American Revolution. But the American Revolution did not begin as an independence movement or as a movement for radical change. Quite the opposite was true: the earliest protests aimed at preserving the status quo in British America. For more than a century, colonial governments had administered the colonies as quasi-autonomous members of the British Empire. Historians identify this experience as salutary (or benign) neglect. Under this framework, England allowed a high degree of self-government in the colonies as a way of encouraging maximum profitability.
Salutary neglect became less viable in the 1760s. Increased costs of empire and wartime debt following the Seven Years' War prompted Parliament to seek new sources of income. The result was tightened regulation of trade and a series of internal and external taxes.
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