03826nam 2200697Ia 450 991079193950332120200520144314.00-674-06502-60-674-06826-210.4159/harvard.9780674065024(CKB)2560000000082490(OCoLC)794427992(CaPaEBR)ebrary10568005(SSID)ssj0000654315(PQKBManifestationID)11405734(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000654315(PQKBWorkID)10661973(PQKB)11712114(DE-B1597)178171(OCoLC)1024051793(OCoLC)1037969074(OCoLC)1041921832(OCoLC)1046610201(OCoLC)1047014493(OCoLC)1049687275(OCoLC)1054864365(OCoLC)979904473(DE-B1597)9780674065024(Au-PeEL)EBL3301062(CaPaEBR)ebr10568005(MiAaPQ)EBC3301062(EXLCZ)99256000000008249020110901d2012 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierAmong the powers of the earth[electronic resource] the American Revolution and the making of a new world empire /Eliga H. GouldCambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press20121 online resource illustrations, maps0-674-04608-0 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter --Contents --MAPS --Introduction --Chapter 1. On the Margins of Europe --Chapter 2. The Law of Slavery --Chapter 3. Pax Britannica --Chapter 4. Independence --Chapter 5. A Slaveholding Republic --Chapter 6. The New World and the Old --Epilogue --Notes --Acknowledgments --IndexFor most Americans, the Revolution's main achievement is summed up by the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Yet far from a straightforward attempt to be free of Old World laws and customs, the American founding was also a bid for inclusion in the community of nations as it existed in 1776. America aspired to diplomatic recognition under international law and the authority to become a colonizing power itself. As Eliga Gould shows in this reappraisal of American history, the Revolution was an international transformation of the first importance. To conform to the public law of Europe's imperial powers, Americans crafted a union nearly as centralized as the one they had overthrown, endured taxes heavier than any they had faced as British colonists, and remained entangled with European Atlantic empires long after the Revolution ended. No factor weighed more heavily on Americans than the legally plural Atlantic where they hoped to build their empire. Gould follows the region's transfiguration from a fluid periphery with its own rules and norms to a place where people of all descriptions were expected to abide by the laws of Western Europe-"civilized" laws that precluded neither slavery nor the dispossession of Native Americans.International relationsUnited StatesUnited StatesForeign relations1775-1783United StatesForeign relations1783-1815United StatesInternational statusHistoryUnited StatesHistoryRevolution, 1775-1783InfluenceUnited StatesTerritorial expansionInternational relations973.3/2Gould Eliga H1532624MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910791939503321Among the powers of the earth3868006UNINA