THOMAS PAINE AND THE ISSUE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Abstract

The Eighteenth Century was one of the centuries that profoundly affected the development of human thought, as it witnessed the emergence of many revolutions, which played a role in reversing the traditional balance of power, aiming to establish new concepts of human rights, equality and religious tolerance, the first of these revolutions was the American Revolution, The basis of its establishment is attributed to a group of men of various class origins, but the goal of their thinking was one, as they described the pioneers of the age of enlightenment, they were able to convince people of the need to defend their natural rights regardless of ethnic origin or social status, and among these figures was the hero of our study This is Thomas Paine, an Englishman who participated in the struggles of the colonies, after he found that his strength lies in his pen, not by his sword. His pen vowed to defend the cause of America and its struggle against the arrogance of the tyrannical British monarchy, by publishing several articles that began with the demand for the abolition of slavery, and ended with the publication of the Common Sense pamphlet, which explicitly demanded the complete separation from the metropolis (the motherland), and Thomas Paine's name emerged as the first public advocate of the cause of independence .