The American Revolution was not only successful because of the soldiers who fought in the war, but it was also successful because of the men that created the ideas and institutions that helped form and maintain the new country of the United States. The American Revolution represented a partially radical alteration in American political ideas and institutions through documents made during the years of 1775-1800. .
Many radical ideas and institutions came from three major documents in American history. These were the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Confederation, and the Constitution. In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, there were three major radical ideas. The first of these three was the statement that all men are created equal. This statement is radical because this is a new concept. In Great Britain, society was made up of three unequal groups; the monarchs, the noblemen, and the common peasants. The second of the three radical statements was that all people were endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. This is a radical statement because this said that all people were born with rights that the government could not take away. This statement can also be considered radical because it actually took away power from the government. This fact leads to the next statement which says that governments are instituted among men to secure the unalienable rights, and that they receive their powers from the consent of the governed, and that people had the right to alter and abolish and institute a new government. This was radical because it gave the people the power to affect the structure and workings of the government. In Great Britain, this was unheard of because the government was controlled by the monarch and the monarch's word was considered law In the Articles of the Confederation and in the Constitution, radical political institutions were created.