The Evolution Of The North America's Revolutionary Discourse From 1763 To 1776

From 1763 to the eve of the American War of Independence,England carried out a set of new colonial policies which were intended to reinforce the absolute sovereignty of the king and the England parliament in the North America as well as emphasized the authority of the royal government there.But these policies dissatisfied the American colonists.They expressed their complaint by submitting petitions to the authorities of England,publishing political articles in the newspapers and issuing pamphlets,which constitutes the main content of the revolutionary discourse of the North America's colonies.Broadly speaking,the evolution of the revolutionary discourse experienced four stages:the burgeon of the revolutionary discourse,the deepening and enlargement of the revolutionary discourse,the differentiation of the revolutionary discourse and the appearance of the independent discourse.The discussion about the Sugar Act was the start of the revolutionary discourse.The discourse of the colonists was mainly about"England" elements.They sought the identity and rights of themselves as Englishmen,emphasized the maintenance of the traditional orders.The issue of the Stamp Act pushed the debate of the new policies to the high tide.Almost all classes joined in.Both sides talked widely and deeply about the authority of British parliament in the North America,the distinction of the internal tax and the external tax,"No Taxation without Representation" and the authority of the colonies' assemblies.The colonists had a deep understanding about the ideological differences with the England,which laid the foundation of solving the issue about the constitutional position of the North America's colonies in British Empire.Besides,the revolutionary discourse gradually inclined to the protection of political rights while their debate was mainly about the policies before.The period of crisis of the Townsend Act not only was a period that the colonists tried to solve the contradictions between each other but also a period of differentiation of the revolutionary discourse among the colonists in North America.They came up with different ways to maintain the relationship with the England.And most of the colonies objected to break away from the British Empire.With the escalating and enlargement of the political and military conflict with England in 1870s,the colonies of the North America began to propagandize to rescue their liberty by force,put the England to a hostile position and attempted to break away from the British Empire.The publishment of the Common Sense of Thomas Paine enlarged the scale of the discourse of independence and reversed the situation of the revolutionary discourse.Finally,the announcement of the Declaration of Independence marked the discourse of independence dominated the revolutionary discourse in the North America.Through the whole process of the North America's revolutionary discourse from 1763 to 1776,it had experienced the shift from seeking the status identity as Englishmen to breaking away from the England.The core of the discourse also shifted from the debate of the policies to the debate of rights and authority of the political level.The discourse became more inflammatory on the eve of independence.