Ap Us History

CHAPTER 8

America Secedes from the Empire, 1775–1783

PART III: Applying What You Have Learned

1. Why were Americans so long reluctant to break with Britain. How does the Declaration of Independence explain ”the causes that impel them to separation” (see Appendix)?

2. Why was the Battle of Saratoga such a key battle in the Revolutionary War? Did Saratoga put the Americans on a clear path to victory, or only prevent them from being quickly defeated?

3. Why did Tom Paine’s radical vision of republican virtue and the rights of the people appeal to so many Americans at the time of independence? Why did more conservative Patriots develop a different vision of America’s republican future?

4. In what ways was the Revolution a civil war among Americans as well as a fight between Britain and those Americans seeking independence? Why have the Loyalists generally been forgotten in the story of America’s beginnings?

5. How did the idealism and self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence shape Americans’ outlook and conduct during the Revolutionary War, including their attempt to establish entirely new principles of international relations?

6. Argue for and against: Even though it was necessary to achieve American independence, the American alliance with the reactionary French monarchy violated revolutionary ideals and demonstrated their impracticality as a basis for international relations.

7. Argue for and against: Washington was a great general not so much because of his victories but because of his brilliant strategic retreats.

8. In what ways did the principles of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence emerge from the practical historical experience of the American people, and in what ways did it reflect the abstract Enlightenment beliefs in a new age of progress, liberty, and human rights?

Part II: Checking Your Progress

A. True-False

Where the statement is true, circle T; where it is false,...