The Idea of Europe and the Origins of the American Revolution

In The Idea of Europe and the Origins of the American Revolution, D. H. Robinson argues, more provocatively than persuasively, that the Revolution arose from the colonists' view of the British Empire as the universal monarchy key to preserving the balance of power in Europe and the rights of Europeans. Over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Britons and colonists developed a continentalist view of geopolitics that portrayed Britain as the guarantor of a balance of power that protected Europeans' rights against Spanish and French aspirations for universal monarchy. The crucial third chapter argues the colonists created both a Eurocentric culture and a vibrant public sphere where elites competed for popular legitimacy in printed and artistic performances. Robinson contends that the combination of popular identification with Europe and the disciplining effect of the public sphere, which forced elites to publish only broadly shared views of Europe, require

Balance (ability · Empire · Geopolitics · Legitimacy · Monarchy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public sphere · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law