ln this paper I propose, in a general way, to discuss two 

 questions: Why did the American Colonies rebel against Eng- 

 land? Why did their Revolution prove snccessful? 



While these questions have, usually, been discussed inde- 

 pendently of each other and have met with extremely varying 

 answers, it is the purpose of this paper to show the essential 

 identity oi the two problems. 



Most English and American historians agree that the Colo- 

 nies had real grievances against the English government. The 

 ordinary way of presenting the case may briefly be said to be 

 this: America was right, England wrong. And still we often 

 see expressed an opinion that may be roughly summarized in 

 the sentence that the Americans came off victorious because 

 they were fighting for that which was right. 



The modern historian is not primarily concerned with the 

 question of moral or legal right or wrong in a given historical 

 conflict. His task is to grasp the motives, the underlying forces 

 of events, and as far as the American Revolution is concerned, 

 we shall see that the course of action of both parties was 

 natural and well founded; both of them pursued a policy which, 

 according to their antecedents, was the only one they could be 

 expected to follow. The contest was not one between right and 

 wrong, but one between two different points of view, both of 

 which were, in their own way, fully justifiable. 



The American Revolution was, essentially, an economic 

 conflict; the chief questions involved were economical ones. 



