Why was the American Revolution not really a revolution?

Answer 1

The Americans wanted to maintain the status quo from the pre-1770's, in which they were largely able to oversee their own affairs, under British protection. Had Britain established a means of allowing the Americans local autonomy, while still maintaining defence and foreign trade regulation (as they did 100 years later with the Dominion of Canada), the Americans likely would not have rebelled. It was only after a decade of political missteps by the British government, after the French and Indian War, in which they increasingly applied more and more direct control of the colonies (the Stamp Act, Quebec Act, Townson Act, the Intolerable Acts, etc...), did the colonies more toward seeking independence. Even after independence, the Americans did not seek to radically change the political and economic status quo, unlike the French and Russian Revolutions, making their revolution one of the most conservative revolutions in world history.

Answer 2

In a revolution, a government is overthrown and replaced by another. The "American Revolution" did overthrow a monarchy,

Yes the American Revolution was a real revolution. If the American Revolution had never taken place the United States would not exist and would probably still be a colony of Great Britain.

The American Revolution is called a revolution because it is the war in which the original 13 colonies of the US decided to revolt against the British monarchy (this happened because of the high taxes that the paid on imported goods).

The American Revolution was a change in the way the government worked and for America to gain it's independence from Great Britain.

In fact it wasn't a true revolution. The reason being is that a TRUE revolution allows 1.Social, 2.Political, and 3. Economic change to occur.

Hence if you were to look at who benefited and what truly changed in Colonial America one can conclude that only politically was there change (they didn't answer to a king anymore - democracy was instated, also a constitution, congress, etc.)

However in society nothing changed only the elite got more powerful for they drove the revolution forward and were put into a position of more power after the revolution.

i.e. there were still slaves, white men who owned land could only have an impact on politics (voting), women had less power then men, the poor and middle class didn't get more powerful... etc.

Economical nothing change either (no radical restructuring), since those in power after the revolution only lowered the high taxes that the British had imposed on the country

--Hence the economic system of capitalism remained in use from pre-revolution to post-revolution

Therefor because only radical political change had occur because of the American revolution you can only truly say that it was only a partial revolution and not a true/full revolution. Yet even though its a partial revolution its still 'a revolution' but to what degree can still be debated.