The American Revolution and the Civil War were conservative revolutions.
2007-07-23 07:37:58 · 6 answers · asked by 29 characters to work with...... 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Obviously conscervative/ liberal as they were contemporary to the events in question.
2007-07-23 09:28:16 · update #1
My reasoning for the American Revolution is that it was fought in reaction to changes in conditions due to Parlimentary action. The patriots were fighting to preserve their formerly held semi-autonomy, and relatively tax free existance. Hence my reasoning behind calling it a conservative revolution.
The Civil War for largely the same reasons. The federal government was slowly changing its position in the republic by growing in power, and the south wanted to keep their economic and political beliefs and practices.
2007-07-23 09:36:58 · update #2
disagree
2007-07-29 23:22:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Obviously not. Conservatism implies keeping things the way they are, because in the opinion of the followers of that movement, things are just peachy the way they are. They were Tories (conservatives) in the colonies during the American Revolution, they want it to be part of England, regardless the second class "citizenship", if you could call it that, they had at the time of the colonies. During the Civil War, you can say that Southerners were conservative, they want it to keep "their peculiar institution", euphemism for slavery, which they knew was morally wrong, but economically made sense. Profits are maximized when you do not have to pay your workers for the labor they provide, some might argue that they were clothed, fed and given housing, but do not kid yourself, they were not given meat everyday, their clothing was of the worst quality (only house slaves were dressed up for the part) and I will not call their houses mansions. So, yes, Southerners were happy with the state of things from their point of view. Since in the American Revolution the system changed from a colony to a Republic, with rights for the white males (women and slaves did not counted) and during the Civil War those rights were extended to the former slaves, I will say that both are not examples of Conservative Revolutions. If you think about it, the term is kind of an oxymoron, a revolution implies change, something that conservatives do not want, therefore, no, they were not conservative revolutions.
2007-07-23 15:02:23 · answer #2 · answered by William Q 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Actually, both take root in the ideas of the enlightenment. These ideas were generally considered to be "liberal" at the time, and certainly not "conservative" - conservative being a movement to preserve the status quo or return to the past.
Now it would be quite a stretch to identify the people behind those revolutions to today's liberals, but they were certainly not conservatives.
Then again, applying any of those terms to distant history is misleading if one takes these words to mean what they mean today. Most XVIIIth century liberals would appear very conservative on many points by today's standards, while XVIII century conservatives (People who tried to argue there were natural slaves, for example) would be completely off the charts politically today.
2007-07-23 14:55:48 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
It was certainly more conservative than the french revolution. In some cases it was a land grab revolution, not by real radicals, they were radical in the sense that they believe in self-determination, but not for anyone but white men.
2007-07-23 19:58:04 · answer #4 · answered by datalj12 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
As compared to Liberal revolution?
2007-07-23 14:43:30 · answer #5 · answered by Ret. Sgt. 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Disagree. The founding fathers practiced Liberalisim. Revolutionaries are considered radical liberals.
2007-07-23 17:32:25 · answer #6 · answered by Michael D 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋