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Common Sense - Thomas Paine

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MABM217 Аз-наративът в британската и американската литература
MARINO MARZIALI - F81122
Thomas Paine, Common sense
The ideological weapon for the independence of the USA
The years before the American Revolution knew the intensification of the political and cultural debate among the colonies. After the Treaty of Paris of 1763 the relations with England were quite complicated because of the new tax policy and administration of the motherland. The new laws clearly represented a change of direction in the management and especially in the conception of the colonies by the British government. The harsh protests and riots that started overseas showed that the colonists insinuated a doubt about the intentions of England, whose behavior was seen as a direct attack against their freedom. In the atmosphere of the colonial debate there were two main options on the positions to take regarding the facts. Many still supported the need for a reconciliation with England, either for the tradition that it bound the colonies or for the protection of trade and security of the American continent. So the fear and uncertainty to be an independent nation in the future restrained settlers' minds. More and more, on the other hand, were the voices, who courageously invoke the separation from the motherland as the only real alternative for the development and prosperity of the colonies. Therefore, the idea of independence had been circulating in the debates and private conversations, but before January 10, 1776 no one had publicly supported his needs, urging Americans to actively pursue it.
The English radical Thomas Paine, with his Common Sense was in fact the first to propose the American people the separation from Great Britain, as a concrete solution, reachable in a short time. The pamphlet had an enormous impact on the colonial debate thanks to the direct and effective way in which

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