Title: Answer Key for Chapter 5 Essay Questions
Course: SkillsCom HST 201 14.2

All questions worth 4 pts.

1. Answers should include:

- The members of the Second Continental Congress did agree to support the Revolutionary War, though they disagreed on its purpose.
- John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee sought complete independence from Britain.
- John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and other moderates desired reforms that could lead to negotiation with Britain.
- The public’s attitude was likewise split, with most interested in redress of grievances more than pure independence from England.
- Britain rejected the moderate Olive Branch petition and was lining up Indians and slaves to fight the colonists, which encouraged more colonists to support the war.
- A naval blockade by the British radicalized more colonists as well.

2. Answers should include:

- Paine, whose pamphlet was unsigned, wanted to redirect colonial anger about parliamentary tax decisions toward a philosophical objection to the English constitution and the system of monarchy itself.
- The impact of Common Sense can be partially measured by its publication success; more than 100,000 copies were sold in its first few months.
- Partly as a result of the pamphlet, sentiment for revolution built rapidly in the early months of 1776 as settlers united economic and ideological reasons for independence.
- This ideological sentiment carried over into the authoring of the Declaration of Independence, which played on moral arguments for separation.

3. Answers should include:

- In the early part of the Revolutionary War, the success of the colonists was due largely to the failures of the British. General Howe repeatedly missed opportunities to aggressively squash the vanquished forces of Washington and abandoned his successful northern initiative.
- Traditionally allied with the British, the Iroquois nations split, some siding with the British and some with the colonists.
- The British lost in the Mid-Atlantic states and suffered a surprising defeat at Saratoga.
- Once the Americans had shown their power, European allies emerged to help. No doubt this help was partly due to the antagonism of these allies toward the British, as the French were the strongest foreign supporters of American forces.
- As a final effort, the British attempted to enlist Loyalist support in the south. Though the British won some battles in this theater, in the end the Americans triumphed through their stronger desire for victory.

4. Answers should include:

- The American Revolution was part of the “age of revolutions,” a movement in the Western world during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries during which revolutions reshaped the political landscape in the Americas and Europe.
- The Enlightenment, particularly the views of John Locke on popular sovereignty over monarchy, provided a strong philosophical basis for revolution across the Atlantic World.
- Individual freedom, as espoused by Voltaire, was also a key Enlightenment concept influencing American political culture.
- Shortly after the American Revolution, the French also took up arms against their monarchy, followed by a slave uprising in Haiti, which was the second movement for independence in the Western Hemisphere.
- Following the American Revolution, independence movements also triumphed in Latin America. Essentially, the concept of democracy, though young still, spread outward from North America to other parts of the Atlantic world.

5. Answers should include:

- The Articles of Confederation strung the loosely connected colonies into a somewhat united group.
- While the Congress created by the Articles of Confederation could make some military and financial decisions, it could not manage trade, institute a military draft, or establish taxes.
- The Confederation was weak in terms of regulating disputes between states or enforcing rules upon them, but it served as a central organizing device for the individualistic colonies.
- Despite their weakness, without the Articles of Confederation there would be no effective method to unify the new states, which in the end adopted a stronger national system under the new Constitution.

6. Answers should include:

- Anglicans, with their ties to England, suffered discrimination after the Revolutionary War.
- The Quakers also suffered because of their pacifism during the war.
- Catholics, on the other hand, did not suffer after the war because their leaders supported the patriot cause and the French alliance was helpful.
- Though the young United States remained largely in Protestant hands, the Catholic Church grew slowly, and the Vatican established an American hierarchy with American bishops.