The Liberalization of America
Indeed, the Declaration of Independence, which advocated liberty and individual rights, was an extremely liberal document in a coservative world dominated by totalitarian, absolute monarchies. The revolutionary war proved that the American colonists were willing to fight and die for this liberalist viewpoint. Our victory triggered this liberalization and was copied by France less than twenty years later. The constitution, which guaranteed these rights and ended religous domination of government officially put this liberalization into practice, despite the protests of conservative religous groups, who insisted on the continuation of an established state church that demanded taxpayer dollars whether the taxpayers believed in God or not. It wasn't until 1786 that the liberal view emerged victorious with the Statute of Religous Freedom that finally guaranteed "Freedom of Conscience", or the right to believe, or NOT believe in anything you wish.
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