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The American Colonies had a character all their own when they went to war with England. The colonies were established on a new continent far from the supervision or protection of Europe. Inevitably democracy grew out of the necessity to deal with real and immediate problems without the guidance of an absentee monarchy. In New England town meetings were a form of direct democracy seldom seen in recorded history. Due to its large size and low population density, plantation colonies like Virginia created representative democratic bodies. The awareness of democracy and political theory in America was influenced by education and theory of the Enlightenment. The founding fathers were well versed in the works of Hobbes and Locke. This self-reliant attitude among Americans was strengthened by the policy of salutary neglect practiced by British monarchs for centuries. As long as the exclusive flow of raw materials and finished goods between the colonies and England remained inviolate, most kings were content to leave the colonies alone. While a sense of loyalty to the crown was retained by most Americans of British birth, later generations felt less obedience to a nation that did little for them and that they had never seen.

Economically the colonies could not be further from conditions in Europe. While England was overcrowded, the colonies enjoyed an abundance of fertile land. While England was in the grips of the Industrial Revolution, the colonies were an agrarian society that would not develop a serious industrial base until the 1830's. Nonetheless, the colonies had more natural resources at their disposal then Europeans could ever dream of. The colonies also had slaves, an institution that did not exist in the European parent nations of America's colonies. With the land, resources and ready supply of cheap labor at their disposal, the colonies quickly became an economic force, particularly in the area of shipping. New York merchants already did a thriving business with the nations of Europe and Africa. The nascent United States is unique in the history of new democracies as the only nation to make a strong point of paying off its foreign debts. Alexander Hamilton, through a series of brilliant tarriffs paid off America's debts to France from the revolutionary war. The effect of this was to give America good credit with the nations of the world by which American business concerns could deal with the a strong dollar.

As the colonies grew exponentially in size and wealth,

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