The Two Faces Of American Freedom Summary

In the first chapter of The Two Faces of American Freedom, by Aziz Rana, the author describes the social and political circumstances that characterized the American colonies and the British Empire prior to the American Revolution in order to give a detailed and accurate explanation about the reasons why the American settlers decided to claim their independence from the English Crown. Rana starts off by telling the story of how the British conquered Ireland in the 16th century. In this case, the author’s intent is to show the reader the technique used by the British to justify their invasions. In the case of the Irish, the English used the excuse that the subdued population was made of ‘pagans and savages’. They used this same exact theory of conquest and expropriation …show more content…
Settlers primarily considered themselves far more superior to other ethnic groups because of their British ancestry. In the 18th century, in order to be economically sustainable and militarily secure from indigenous threats, settlers promoted emigration by other European communities. They also simplified the process of naturalization, which however required foreigners to be or become protestants, to attract more immigrants. Still, French Catholics, Native Americans and African slaves were seen as enemies by the colonists. American settlers started to feel discontent as the English Crown passed the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Quebec Act of 1774 and other military and taxation policies. In fact, they started to feel like they lost their freedom and their ability to keep growing both socially and financially. Through these new reforms, the British started to tolerate the French Catholics and granted Native Americans the land acquired with the war victory over France, thus taking it away from the dreams of settlers. For all these reasons they decided to revolt against imperial