It was a triumphant time to be an American. We had just won our freedom from Britain and the Revolutionary War was over. However, some people have come to believe that the American Revolution was not a true revolution at all, but an evolution. Someone could easily think that the American Revolution was actually an evolution, but there is countless evidence pointing to the title of "Revolution." Webster's New World Dictionary defines a revolution as "Overthrow of a government, form of government, or social system by those governed and usually by forceful means, with another government or system taking its place." This is exactly what the colonists did. One way this was a revolution rather than an evolution was the manner by which the American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain. They did this by writing and accepting the Declaration of Independence. They overthrew the British rule in the colonies and became a free nation. They overthrew the British rule in the colonies by winning several battles. Not just military battles, but psychological battles as well. "During the two-year campaign against the Townshend duties, the Sons of Liberty made a deliberate effort to involve ordinary folk in the formal resistance movement "Merchants, Tradesmen, Freeholders, Mechanics, and other Inhabitants"; all agreed not to import or consume items of British origin. Such tactics helped to increase the number of colonists who were publicly aligned with the protest movement (A People and a Nation, 141)." They were recruiting people to aid in the rebellion and letting the British know that the revolutionists were gaining support from the rest of the colonists. America waged war on Britain and won it through endurance and mistakes by Britain. The Americans, led by George Washington, were intent on not actually winning battles, but not losing too decisively. "As long as his (Washington) army survived to win another day, he saw, the outcome of an individual battle was more or less irrelevant (152).
