The American Revolution as an aftermath of the great war for the Empire, 1754-1763 : and other essays in American colonial history. Second series of essays

1950·4 MB·English

by  Gipson, Lawrence Henry, 1880-1971

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'The American Revolution
as an Aftermath of the Great
War
for the Empire, 1754-
1763" and other Essays in
American Colonial History
Secona Series of Ossays
BY
LAWRENCE HENRY GIPSON
Institute of Research
Lehigh University-
Bethlehem, Pa.
1950
UNIVERSITY
OF PITTSBURGH
LIBRARY
-I OF.it>>
THIS BOOK PRESENTED BY
Mrs, Howard N. Eavenson

:
Table of Contents
In 1942 there was issued by the Department of History
and Government of Lehigh University ''Some Reflections
upon the American Revolution" and other Essays inAmer-
ican Colonial History by Lawrence Henry Gipson. The re-
sponse to this on the part of students of history was such
that ithasseemed desirable to place togetheranothergroup
of essays that have appeared since this date and to issue
them in the same manner, but now under the sponsorship
of the Institute of Research. The following essays have
been included
1. "The American Revolution as an Aftermath of the
Great War for the Empire, 1754-1763," The Political
Science Quarterly, March, 1950.
2. ''Thomas Hutchinson and the Framing of the Albany
Plan of Union, 1754," The Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography, January, 1950.
3. "British Diplomacy in the Light of Anglo-Spanish
New World Issues, 1750-1757," The American Histori-
calReview, July, 1946.
4. "A French Project of Victory Short of a Declaration
of War, 1755," The Ccunadian Historical Review, De-
cember, 1945.
5. "The Art of Preserving an Empire," The William amd
Mary Quarterly, October, 1945.
6. "British Imperialism and the Conception of Trustee-
ship," The American Oxonian, January, 1947.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AS AN
AFTERMATH OF THE GREAT WAR
FOR THE EMPIRE, 1754-1763
LAWRENCE HENRY GIPSON
REPRINTED FROM POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY-
Vol. LXV, No. 1, March 1950 V,;.':
NEW YORK
PUBLISHED BY THE
ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
1950
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AS AN AFTERMATH
OF THE GREAT WAR FOR THE EMPIRE, 1754-1763
GREAT
wars in modern times kave too frequently been
the breeders of revolution. The exhausting armed
struggles in which France became engaged in the latter
half of the eighteenth century led as directly to the French
Revolution as did the First World War to the Russian Revolu-
tion; it may be said as truly that the American Revolution was
an aftermath of the Anglo-French confUct in the New World
carried on between 1754 and 1763. This is by no means
to deny that other factors were involved in the launching of
these revolutionary movements. Before proceeding with an
analysis of the theme of this paper, however, it would be well
to consider the wording of thetitle given toit.*
Words may be used either to disguise or to distort facts as
well is to clarify them, but the chief task of the historian is to
illuminate the past. He is faced, therefore, with the responsi-
bility of vsing only such words as will achieve this broad ob-
jective of his calling and to reject those that obscure or defeat
it. For this reason "the French and Indian War", as a term
descriptive of the conflict to which we have just referred, has
been avoided in this essay as well as in the writer's series on the
British Empire before the American Revolution. This has been
done in spite of the fact that it has been employed by most
Americans ever since the early days of our Republic and there-
fore has the sanction of long usage as well as the sanction of
American national tradition assigning, as does the latter, to the
Revolutionary War a position of such commanding importance
as to make all other events in American history, preceding as
well as followingit, quite subordinate to it. In contrast to this
traditional interpretation of our history one may aflSrm that the
Anglo-French conflict settled nothing less than the incom-
*This paper was read before the colonial history section of the American His-
torical Association in December 1948 at the Annual Meeting held inWashington.