Domestic and Foreign Affects of the American Revolution

Layna Flores

2005 APUSH Free-Response Questions

The effects of the American Revolution were both big and small, domestic and foreign. The whole world felt the effects that greatly changed American society.

Politically, the first major effect of the Revolution was the Articles of Confederation, which were made to govern the new country. The articles failed miserably since the government’s powers were too limited (they had no control of taxation or commerce and were already bankrupt from the war). The Constitution resulted from the failed Articles of Confederation, supported by Federalists and Anti-Federalists, America’s first political party. Document I written by James Madison supported the Federalists party “if men were angles no government would be necessary”. Systems and compromises were created to ease the Anti-Federalist party into the idea of the Constitution, starting with the Checks and Balances system which allowed each branch of government to keep the others in check “you must first enable to government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself” (Document I). Compromises such as the Great Compromise, the Bill of Rights, and Land Ordinances allowed two opposing sides to both win. For example, the Northwest Ordinance kept the fight over slavery at bay “there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory” but “any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed…may be lawfully reclaimed” (Document H). Compromises as this one made the government fair, reliable and trustworthy.

America may have been on the right track politically after the war, but they didn’t have the same luck economically. Right after the American Revolution, the economy plummeted, leaving citizens in hard times and debts. Foreign issues played a big role in America’s early economy: Britain’s navigation laws were still in effect, trade to Britain’s West Indies were cut off to and from America, and Spain closed off the Mississippi River to America (which greatly harmed the South’s ability to export its products). At the time, Southern agriculture was the biggest industry in the United States, as shown by the photo of a medal wording “venerate the plough” (Document F). The government had no control over commerce, leaving them useless and helpless. The lack of trade and the government’s inability to tax pushed America into a deeper debt. The economy eventually cleared up as Industry began to take up in the North and Spain opened the Mississippi River to the states