War's Effects.

The Revolutionary War did not significantly affect all Americans. Even at its peak in 1776, the American army numbered fewer than ninety thousand men, or only about one-eighth of the total number of military-age men. In 1779 and 1780 the army shrank to about half that size. Many people felt no strong loyalty either to the patriotic or the British cause. Some were opportunistic, selling to whichever side happened to be buying or paying the best prices. The war did not affect the rate of population growth either. Owing to Americans' high rate of natural increase, the population grew by 83 percent between 1770 and 1790, a rate nearly identical to the one for the period 1750 to 1770. Nevertheless, the War of Independence was different from previous colonial wars, in which the colonists participated as British subjects. This time the Americans were fighting their old protector with...