000004101 001__ 4101 000004101 005__ 20250425034204.0 000004101 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.6082/uchicago.4101 000004101 037__ $$aTHESIS$$bThesis 000004101 041__ $$aeng 000004101 245__ $$aThe Emergence of Colonial Unity 000004101 260__ $$bUniversity of Chicago 000004101 269__ $$a2022-08 000004101 336__ $$aThesis 000004101 502__ $$bM.A. 000004101 520__ $$aUnderstanding the creation of the United States has proved to be deceptively tricky for most of the literature; nationalism and ideology have stood in the way of studying it without mythologizing. The Emergence of Colonial Unity proposes that we study the early stages of American unity by examining the first episode of widespread intercolonial cooperation without Imperial intervention- The Stamp Act Congress. It uses the autocatalytic framework developed by Prof. Padgett, alongside the tools of social network analysis, complex scientific studies, prosopography, documentary research, and historiographical inquiry to present a different explanation for the emergence of colonial unity that transformed into the organizational novelty of the United States. It argues that intercolonial unity did not develop in a single episode, instead it was the culmination of individual autocatalytic networks inside the North American colonies -then moving towards neither independence nor unity- which were primed for tipping when the Stamp Act was passed, thereby leading to the wholesale tipping and folding of these networks when they converged in the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. The Emergence concludes that had it not been for the various manners in which the Stamp Act affected internal political and kinship networks -regardless of their position on it- set thirteen of the British colonies on path-dependency towards further intercolonial integration and eventually unity- not in one fell swoop but by emerging out of the complex system of North American networks. 000004101 542__ $$fCC BY-SA 000004101 6531_ $$aAmerican Revolution 000004101 6531_ $$aStamp Act Congress 000004101 6531_ $$aSocial Network Analysis 000004101 6531_ $$aAutocatalysis 000004101 6531_ $$aEmergence 000004101 6531_ $$aStamp Act 000004101 6531_ $$aSNA 000004101 6531_ $$aAmerican History 000004101 6531_ $$aEarly American History 000004101 6531_ $$aPolitical Sciences 000004101 6531_ $$aColonial History 000004101 6531_ $$aIntercolonial Relations 000004101 6531_ $$aThirteen Colonies 000004101 6531_ $$aSociology 000004101 6531_ $$aStructural Analysis 000004101 6531_ $$aHistory 000004101 6531_ $$aPolitical Factionalism 000004101 6531_ $$aFounding Fathers 000004101 6531_ $$aFounding of the United States 000004101 6531_ $$aAmerican Republic 000004101 6531_ $$aUnited States 000004101 6531_ $$aStamp Act Crisis 000004101 690__ $$aSocial Sciences Division 000004101 691__ $$aMA Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) 000004101 7001_ $$2ORCID$$aSerna Diaz, Anthony$$uUniversity of Chicago 000004101 72012 $$aJohn F. Padgett 000004101 72014 $$aJulius L. Jones 000004101 8564_ $$9ba82cd46-c4e5-4dc7-bf13-3750c7527e85$$s1755786$$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/4101/files/The_Emergence_of_Colonial_Unity_Anthony_Serna_Diaz.pdf$$erestricted 000004101 908__ $$aI agree 000004101 909CO $$ooai:uchicago.tind.io:4101$$pGLOBAL_SET$$pTheses 000004101 983__ $$aThesis