Information Related to "America's Astounding Destiny: Rise to Greatness"
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America’s Astounding Destiny
Rise
To Greatness
In part
1 of this series we noted America’s unlikely break from Britain to
chart a new and independent course—in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
Now we examine the foretelling of the United States’ rise to greatness
and its dramatic fulfillment.
by Melvin Rhodes
In the 40-year period from 1775 to 1815 the world changed dramatically. In 1775, when the first shots were fired in the American Revolution, no one could have foreseen the dramatic changes to come.
The fledgling American colonies not only emerged with their independence, but they did so in a vastly stronger position. British historian Paul Johnson writes that “the 1783 Peace of Paris (which ended the American Revolution) doubled the size of the United States, adding the western territories to the Atlantic states” (A History of the American People, 1997, p. 182, emphasis added).
Johnson explains this remarkable development: “At the peace talks, the French were surprised at the readiness of the British to make concessions to America. Vergennes (the French foreign minister) declared: ‘The British buy peace rather than make it. Their concessions exceed all that I could have thought possible’” (Johnson, p. 167). This “was (Benjamin) Franklin’s doing: he persuaded the British to be generous to America . . .” (ibid.).
The United States emerged from the war with impressive gains. Not only did the 13 colonies achieve independence, but Britain ceded her territories west of the original states and east of the Mississippi River, effectively doubling the size of the country. This vast area would later become Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,Alabama and Mississippi.
The new nation gained control of the Ohio River and access to the heart of the continent by means of the Mississippi River. The enormous territory the new country acquired was rich in fertile land. Selling these vast land holdings to its citizens helped enable the new government to pay off its war debts. Farmers even had a ready export market because the 1780s saw the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, a transformation fed by a burgeoning population that was moving from the countryside into the big industrial cities.
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