America as Imperium in Imperio: The Growth of Nascent American Nationalism in the Late Colonial Period

Abstract

PreJface This article reviews the growth of nascent American nationalism and major factors contributing to its growth in the last decades of the Colonial Period. It is my contention that the American Revolution would not have occurred or succeeded if there had not developed among the Americans a degree of self-awareness as the American people and selfconfidence in their united power. Furthermore, I maintain that this nascent nationalism defined to a great extent American attitudes toward foreign affairs in the Revolutionary years. Thus this article is related to my study of the diplomacy of the American Revolution, part of which was published in this journal. It is obvious enough that the new colonial policies after the peace of Paris and the ensuing British-Colonial conflicts, stimulating both a sense of separateness from Britain and a sense of intercolonial togetherness, brought to the surface latent American nationalism. However, nascent American nationalism existed by the time Britain embarked on the new colonial policies. Economic development and po]itical maturity of the colonies, growth of intercolonial relations, Anglo-American victory over France in Canada, and more fundamentally, common English heritage and common colonial self-identification with the British Empire-all these had been working to nourish nascent American nationalism.