Impact of Thomas Paine's Common Sense Historical Essay Example

For 150 years the colonies lived in peace without much interaction with the British government. However that changed after the Seven Years' War which was a financial burden to the crown, compelling King George to impose heavier taxes on the colonies. This led to protests invoking a violent response from the British; the Boston Massacre and Battle of Bunker Hill are two notable examples. In response to these events author, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a popular piece of literature that inspired the revolution. Despite the overly normalized and increasingly strict/inhumane laws implemented by the British, Paine’s acknowledgment that the British monarchy was corrupt, was indispensable for the Declaration of Independence’s publication. 

Thomas Paine was able to minimize the importance of kings in society and convince the colonists of their ability to revolutionize. Corruption was normalized from the centuries when the sole type of government that people were exposed to was a monarchy. The plan to revolutionize, leave the crown and create a democracy seemed radical and naive, but Paine was able to remind them that it could be doable by giving examples of non-royal societies succeeding in history. “In the early ages of the world, according to scripture chronology, there were no kings” Paine wrote, acknowledging society could function without kings and associating a lack of kings with goodness and religion. His use of religion directly contrasted the ingrained view that kings were chosen by God. After correlating goodness with the absence of royalty he revealed that “government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens.” He insulated royalty by saying that it was unchristian and followed with the reaffirmation that “it was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry” (Common Sense p.75).  The entirety of the Declaration of Independence was dedicated to saying that “the present King of Great Britain [had] a… Tyranny over these States'' (D.O.I.). Paine’s background on monarchies helped convince the public that the crown was an unnecessary evil. His critique inspired Americans to stray from royalty, the popular form of government, in favor of something more old-fashioned; a democracy. 

The rapid increase of British presence in the colonies after over a century of neglect proved that the greedy crown only cared about the Americans when they benefited. Although the colonies were always British territory and colonists considered themselves British citizens, the British government ignored them. The sudden imposition of taxes after the British were in debt from the Seven Years' War was a clear example of the selfishness of the British crown. The British explained that they were helping the Americans as an attempt to excuse the sudden increase in taxes, however, the colonists recognized that they had no benefit from the war, and the crown’s excuse was senseless. The colonies weren’t the only ones who suffered from British rule, but they were the ones who took action because they had the 150-year gap where they essentially ruled themselves, and losing that peaceful power was a shock. This differed from the English who had normalized the high taxes and didn’t recognize the need for change. The colonies took offense to the unfair taxes and cruel laws and addressed them when creating the Declaration of Independence; “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent'' alongside addressing other offenses that the British committed against them “He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us” (D.O.I). Colonists were tired of the parasitic relationship they had with the British, they knew that they would fare better without the corrupt crown. 

The normalization of corruption would have prevented the colonists from revolutionizing if not for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that analyzed the British government, and the unholy background of royalty while urging the public to overthrow the crown.