Politics > American Revolution

USA 250: Setting The Stage For Revolution

America, Great Britain, and the Western world on the eve of the Revolution.

S. David Sultzer | April 16, 2026

What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760–1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. — John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1815

As the year 1760 dawned, England and its perennial enemy, France, were at war for global dominance, fighting on five continents. It would later be known as the Seven Years War, with its theaters in North America labeled the French and Indian War and the 1st Anglo-Cherokee War.

By 1760, great, wind-driven ships traversed the world’s oceans. The Age of Sail, which began in the 15th century, and its companion, the Age of Discovery, had transformed the world through trade. Before 1600, in every developed society across the world, a tiny minority of royalty and their associates were wealthy, while all about them, the vast majority lived in subsistence-level poverty. That changed only with the advent of world trade, mercantilism, and capitalism, which together lifted the majority out of poverty and created a middle class.

Image by Our World In Data. CC BY 0.

By 1760, about 1.5 million people lived in the North American colonies, and the population growth rate was set to double in 20 years. The colonies had benefited from nearly 150 years of the British government’s “benign neglect.” As the Privy Council told South Carolina’s new governor in 1722, that policy was intended to make colonial governments as “Easy and Mild as possible to invite people to Settle under it.”

By 1760, a prosperous middle class had developed in the colonies. It was a society unburdened by Europe’s ultra-wealthy, permanent noble class. When Lord Wortley Montague died in London in 1761, his estate was worth over £1.3 million. When the wealthiest merchant in Boston, Thomas Hancock (John’s uncle), died near the same time, his estate was valued at only £70,000.

The colonies were also unburdened by Europe’s permanently impoverished underclass, for they had........

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