EconAir

  The Causes of the American Revolution How the Colonials Won Creating a New Nation-State   Introduction History is irony. Things turn out differently than expected or planned, there are unintended consequences, a short-run success can be the source of a long-run failure.   The French and Indian War is an example. England, with American help, won the war. But, as a consequence of the war, England changed its policies towards its American colony. And lost America.   The loss of the American colonies was more important than the gain of Canada.   The French and Indian War was part of a global conflict between England and France. After England’s victory in North America, they made bad decisions affecting their American colonies. From being an ally, Americans became increasingly angry at English policies. The result was that only 12 years after the official end of the French and Indian War (1763), Americans rose up in revolt against English rule. The American Revolut...

Thucydides A friend of mine recently said that the most “useless” course he took in college was history. Let’s start with Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War . This was a war that took place over 2,400 years ago. What possible relevance could it have? In this war, Athens and Sparta, the two “superpowers” of Greece, were locked into a long war for the dominance of Greece. The climax to the story in Thucydides was that Athens decided to send its formidable fleet and much of its army to attack Syracuse, an ally of Sparta far away across the Mediterranean Sea in Sicily (still there). The campaign was a disaster, leading to political instability at home and weakening Athens’ military position in Greece. Sound familiar? Remind you of our involvement in Vietnam? This is not a direct analogy but suggestive of some of the consequences of the Vietnam War. These potential consequences were not factored into the decision to make a major commitment in Vietnam. Fort...