EconAir

  The Causes of the American Revolution How the Colonials Won Creating a New Nation-State   Background America in 1775 was a very different English colony than in 1700. In 1700, America was a poor "country" compared to England. By 1775, America's total output was about 40% of England's. America's total output and population were growing faster. Besides providing raw material imports that England taxed and exported to other countries, America was becoming an important market for English manufactured goods. America also provided ships, shipbuilding, and sailors that could augment the British merchant marine  and navy in times of war. But England had to be careful. America  was a very different colony in 1775 than in 1700. Its population was much greater and more diverse. In 1700, almost all the white population in the 1600s came from England. But in the 1700s, about half of immigrants from England were convicts forced to serve long indenture terms in the American co...

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. For...