Commerce And Conquest PDF Download

In English America, colonial society did not simmer for several decades in the face of unpopular reforms. Reaction to the Stamp Act was almost immediate. The assemblies played a central role in shaping this reaction. The Crown attacked the center. The center resisted. Resistance to the mother country in English America was organized by the most comprehensive political institution, the assembly. The Continental Congress was its creation. The problem of authority was resolved before the revolution commenced. In Spanish America, the institutional base of the revolt was the cabildo, the least comprehensive political unit. The problem of authority, the issue of who should govern and to whose benefit, was at the heart of the rebellion. The independence movement in Spanish America faced a situation fundamentally more complex than the difficulties experienced by revolutionary leaders in English America. The assembly could levy taxes, raise armies, and issue currency. It was an established institution that held together the dominant interests of colonial society. The revolution in English America sustained and defended a basic, operating, legitimate institutional framework. The ideology of the revolution came from the assembly. -- Pg. 235.