I don't really understand what my teacher is asking for in the essay.. I don't know what it is he wants me to write about. here is the assignment:

Question

anonymous · Answer

I want to ensure that everyone clearly understands the midterm question.  The issue is not independence but rather the development of a "self-reliant" people. By this I mean that the colonist depended on their own institutions to survive the colonial experience. These institutiions may be rooted in political, religious, philisophical, or economic principles, just to name a few. Since they were an "independent-minded" people, then, by extention they embraced a "tradition of self-government." Your role is to write an essay identifying and analyzing the "resources/traditions/historical institutions" that they used overtime to develop this "self-reliant/independent" society.....

anonymous · Answer

can anyone give me an example?

anonymous · Answer

The easiest example would probably be to look at the independence of the United States following the Revolution. One of the things that they eventually had to come up with was a system to govern themselves that would be better than the one they had depended on before. They weren't colonies anymore -- they were a nation and they needed to figure out what to do now that they only had themselves to depend on without the British Empire.

They first came up with the Articles of Confederation (which wasn't so great) as their first constitution. When it didn't work out, they drafted a new one which we know today simply as the Constitution which set up our present system of government.

anonymous · Answer

its not what made them self reliant to want to move forward with becoming independent from the English parliament?

anonymous · Answer

This is NOT an analysis on how the colonists became independent. Please do NOT write an essay on the independence movement, but rather on the historical conditions that gave rise to a ferociously independent people. What historical or contemporary forces over the years did the colonist experience which led them to become an "independent and self-reliant people." Again, this is NOT an essay on how the colonist became independent but on how the American Colonist are became an  "independent and self-reliant people."