Whatever its origins – and a number of competing and cooperative factors created it – the American Revolution in fact did create a new, democratic nation.Ĭertainly, the concepts that Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration Independence – that "all men are created equal," and that government derives its power from the "consent of the governed" – were revolutionarily democratic ideals. Some see the revolution as a struggle for self-government others see it as a class struggle that erupted in violence. ![]() ![]() Historians have vigorously debated how the American Revolution gave rise to democracy. Even though it wasn't the first democratic experiment in history, the American Revolution was still considered revolutionary (even radical) in its time, especially when compared to the most powerful European nations of the day, which continued to be ruled by old-world monarchs and wealthy aristocrats. The Greek city-state of Athens was one of the world's first direct democracies, and the Roman Republic was the first representative democracy in history, dating from 509 B.C.E. In a representative democracy, also known as a republic, the people elect representatives who conduct the nation's business. government isn't a direct democracy, in which the people themselves vote on the nation's policies and spending budgets, but a representative democracy. ![]() ![]() Does that mean that the United States was the world's first democracy? No.
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