Essay Sample on Revolutionary Wars That Shaped America: Bacon's Rebellion & Glorious Revolution

Introduction

America has, over its time experienced several wars that have helped in building the nation to its strong foundations. Some of the battles of the revolution include Bacon's Rebellion and Glorious Revolution. These revolutions were important is helping America shape its future, and they formed the foundation for the revolutionary war of independence. The revolutions were a result of oppression of the native Americans by the colonizers. On the other hand, the settlers were responsible for the revolution wars as they need not agree with some of the policies and rules that were being directed to them. For instance, Bacon's rebellion is an excellent example of settlers against the plans by the governor. The leading cause of the Bacon rebellion was the refusal by governor Berkeley's to retaliate the attacks by the native Americans in frontier settlement.

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Bacon's Rebellion Origin

The rebellion to place between 1676-1677 by the Virginia settlers. The leader of the uprising was Nathaniel Bacon, and he was against the leadership of Governor William Berkeley. The rebellion began with a dispute with the Doeg Indians across the Potomac River. The Indians started attacking the Virginia frontier. At the same time, governor Willian Berkeley initiated an Assembly to have plan that isolated the Susquehannocks and also bringing the Indians on the same page with other territories. Other people in the area saw this am opportunity for a war that would yield Indian slaves and land and at the same time would results in widespread and anti-Indian sentiment. Bacon demanded that a commission be formed to fight the Indians, and when no individual was willing to come forward, he led the rebellion himself. This resulted in the civil war against Bacon's followers and the loyalist of Berkeley. The conflict became bitter and personal. At some point, Berkeley expelled Bacon from the commission reinstated him, and they expelled him again. When the fighting became too intense Berkeley fled the region, and when he tried coming back again, he was sent away by the soldiers of Bacon. A few wee later Bacon passed away, and there was intense fighting on who should take the leadership role of the region. The crown decided to send troops but when they arrived the fighting was over.

Causes of Bacon Rebellion

The immediate cause of the rebellion was the refusal by governor Berkeley to retaliate the attacks by the native Americans in frontier settlement. Consequently, most of the colonists in the region wanted to attack the native American frontier land, but the governor denied them permission. With the refusal by Governor Berkeley to permit the colonists to attack the native Americans the colonist started the rebellion so that they can get land and slave form the native Americans. Moreover, there have been some arguments that the uprising was because of power struggle between Berkeley and Bacon. This was because Berkeley had favored his court instead ruling according the famous wave. Moreover, Bacon was not popular with Berkeley followers did not like him, and ta the court and council he was not within the inner circle of Berkeley, and most of the council members disagreed with him on several issues. Moreover, Bacon started the rebellion so that they can receive recognition form the government and advance their welfare.

Impact of Bacon Rebellion

The war resulted in the death of many people in the region. Many people both native and colonists lost their life because of the rebellion. Consequently, many people were displaced as the colonist were intending to take more land from the native Americans. Therefore, there was destruction of property as the principal capital was burned down. The Bacon followers burned down the capital when he passed away as this created power vacuum in his camp. His followers were devastated buy his death, and hey did not want Berkeley to return to power.

Governor Berkeley became the governor again after Nathaniel Bacon died. After he regained power Governor Berkeley took land that belonged to the rebels and executed about 23 individuals through hanging. A committee was constituted to check on the reasons for the rebellion. After the committee returned its report to King Charles II, governor Berkeley was relieved of his duties and recalled to England. Additionally, in the region indentured servants were used until 1680s. Another impact of the rebellion was that focus was now turned to Africa for slaves. This deprived Africa most of its strong and active individuals to facilitate growth in the continent.

Moreover, most Africans died during the transatlantic slave trade as most ships sunk and because of diseases such as malaria and smallpox. The reason why Africa was the preferred destination for slaves is that there was smaller group of poor individuals in England who were willing to become indentured variants. Between 1700 and 1750 Africans accounted for half of the population in Virginia.