By 1770, North American colonists resented the British government's new financial program as expressed in the Stamp
Act and the Tea Act, so they rebelled using both nonviolent and
violent ways. They were unsuccessful in their attempt to win their
own representative institutions. Their physical attacks on the
crown's officials, whom they tarred and feathered and whose
houses they burned, gained more attention. The organized armed
rebellion gained momentum after the dumping of the British East
India Company's tea in Boston harbor. The Declaration of
Independence in 1776 clarified the grievances of the colonists,
who won their eight-year war partially through their guerilla tactics,
French support, and help from some Native Americans. In 1789,
the first written constitution was ratified by the individual states,
unifying them into a single federal state and giving a new model of
a political structure with a balance of power among three branches
of government. The constitution also included a Bill of Rights
based on British and Enlightenment ideas for protection of
citizens' rights. These ideas spread to other parts of the Atlantic
world. In the new United States of America, however, citizenship
was by definition limited to males of European origin and some
other men of property. Women, Native Americans, people from
other parts of the world, and slaves received limited, if any, rights
to participate in government.
Summary