FOCUS QUESTION Why and how did American colonists forge a new, independent nation?

Increased taxes and government control were a crucial factor behind colonial protests in the New World, where the era of liberal political revolution began. After revolting against their home country, the thirteen mainland colonies of British North America succeeded in establishing a new unified government. Participants in the revolution believed they were demanding only the traditional rights of English men and women. But those traditional rights were liberal rights, and in the American context they had strong democratic and popular overtones. Thus the American Revolution was fought in the name of ideals that were still quite radical for their time. In founding a government based on liberal principles, the Americans set an example that would have a forceful impact on France and its colonies. Yet the revolution did not resolve the question of social and political equality, which eluded the enslaved, women, free blacks, and indigenous people.