During the 18th century, Great Britain and France were continually at war. As a result, Great Britain started controlling the colonies in America by imposing several acts on them in order to pay for the cost of the war. This led to many conflicts in American colonies. As many more restrictions were forced on the colonies between 1650 and 1776, they decided to unite and rebel against Great Britain. Taxation, limited freedom, and ideological influences all played a major role in weakening the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain and eventually these factors led to the beginning of the American Revolution.
Taxations was one of the major factor that caused the colonists to rebel against their home country. Great Britain was in
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debt from the Seven Year’s War (French and Indian War) so they thought that they should tax the colonists. The colonists became upset due the fact that they have to pay for Great Britain’s debt and it didn’t involve them, hence they though it wasn’t fair. In 1764, Great Britain imposed a tax on sugar, molasses, silk, wine, coffee, and indigo. This Sugar Act led the colonies to protest to “no taxation without representation”. The colonists realized that this was not the only act will be imposed on them and they will be more. The Stamp Act was the first direct tax passed by the British in 1765 in order to set up new military force, where they required the use of stamps.
Printed documents in the colonies including legal documents, newspapers, and marriage licenses had to have a stamp. As the frustrations increased, the British introduced Tea Act. It allowed the British East India Tea Company to sell tea tax free to the colonies, which forces the colonial merchants to pay. Also, it blocked out the tea trade for the merchants. The colonists opposed these acts because they were being taxed by Great Britain and they had no representation in the Parliament. The Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and Tea Act were all taxation placed on the colonies without their approval, thus that contributed to their …show more content…
protest. Another factor caused the American Revolution was the restriction of civil liberties.
Everyone has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” but the British restricted some of these natural rights. The Quartering Act of 1765 mandated the colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. Due to this act, the colonists’ right to privacy was taken away and it made them resent the Prime Minister George Grenville more. The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited the settlement in the area beyond the Appalachians. Despite the fact that this law was not intended to press the colonists but rather compromise with the Indians, the colonists still felt restricted. The colonists felt that they had the right to own the land west of the Appalachians because they fought for it in the French and Indian War.
Few years before the beginning of the American Revolution, the British started the Intolerable Acts as a punishment for the Boston Tea Party, a rebellion in which the colonists dumped 15,000 pounds of tea into the Boston Harbor. As number of acts started to increase, the less freedom the colonies had and this condition enraged the colonists. The Quartering Act, Proclamation of 1763, and the Intolerable Acts all limited the freedoms of the American
colonists. All the oppressive acts made the colonies united with the goal of fighting Great Britain. With the Townshend Acts in 1767, the British placed regulations on the import of glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea. The taxes from this act reduced the power of the colonies because part of the taxes was set aside for the tax collectors by the Townshend revenue, meaning that the colonist had no no monetary control anymore. The Quebec Acts angered the colonies so much that they held the First Continental Congress. In 1744, the Quebec Act extended Quebec's boundary to Ohio River. The colonists viewed this as an attack on them because it away part of land from them and they feared that their government would be taken away too. The Continental Congress was held in September of 1774 in Philadelphia, which twelve of the thirteen colonies agreed to fight against their home country. As well as the economic reasons, there were ideological influences for the American Revolution. First influence was the ideas of Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke. His ideas of the Social Contract is that if the kings is unfair, the citizens should rise up against him and rebel. Second influence was leadership. Leaders like, Paul Revere, who did engraving of the Boston Massacre, Samuel Adams,, and Patrick Henry, who said this quote: “Give liberty or give me death.” were called sons of liberty because they were the first group of business leaders, lawyers, doctors, and mechanics to call for freedom from Great Britain. Despite many economic causes for the American Revolution, ideology played a role too. In conclusion, there were many actions of the British enraged the colonies to the point that they rebelled against Great Britain. The three most important causes were Taxation, limited freedom, and ideological influences. These there factors played a significant role in weakening the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain. Therefore, the colonists aimed for independence from their home country.
The soldiers were trialed for murdered but were found innocent. Afterwards, a group of men formed named The Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty lead protest in Boston. A key event leading to the revolution was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a protest lead by the Sons of Liberty. The group of men dumped the imported tea and further eroded the relations with Britain. After the Boston Tea Party, the colonist refused to drink British tea. As stated in Tom Gage’s Proclamation, “Whereas the rebels hereabout, Are stubborn still, and still hold out; Refusing yet to drink their tea, In spite of Parliament and me” Furthermore, the British were becoming annoyed by the colonists actions. Therefore, the British passed the Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts, as the name predicts, made the colonists furious. The British had passed the Intolerable Acts precisely to punish the Massachusetts colonist. The Acts consisted of the Massachusetts Bay closing, until tea was paid for, and a new Quartering Act, The new Quartering Act allowed British Troops to be stationed in private homes if necessary. Also, it gave power to the crown to elect all officials in
The number one reason that the colonists began protests, and boycotts, against the British was because they believed their natural rights as citizens were being violated. After the french and Indian War Great Britain was in massive debt. So the King began to tax the colonies. For example the heavy taxes in the colonies led to the Boston Massacre and to the Boston Tea Party. The British then adopted the policy of mercantilism.
With out competition the East India Company had full control over the prices they set. This infuriated the Colonists. Pamphlets and protests did not seem to be cutting it anymore, so some felt like action needed to be taken. The Sons of Liberty answered the call. In an act of defiance, “a few dozen of the Sons of Liberty, opposing new British laws in the colonies, systematically dumped three shiploads of tea into Boston harbor. They acted to prevent the royal authorities from collecting taxes on that import” (Bell). This made left Parliament infuriated. They did what they only know how to do and put a tighter squeeze on the colonists. Their answer was the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts in the Colonies. The first of these acts was the Boston Port Bill. This bill shut down the Boston Harbor, the livelihood of many Bostonians. It would not re-open until the tea that was dumped could be paid off. Another one of the Intolerable Acts was the Massachusetts Government Act, in which they had to hand their government over to royal officials. Many saw this as too far or unacceptable. As shown by the statement, “Most historians agree that the Intolerable Acts were among the leading causes of the American Revolution (1775–83) as the legislation galvanized opposition to British political and economic policies in the
The most important issue prompting Americans to rebel in 1776 is clearly parliamentary taxation. The first time a Parliamentary imposed tax threatened the livelihood of the colonies was in 1733 with the Molasses Act, stemmed from the loss of profit for the British West Indies under the Navigation Act. However, this act was avoidable and rarely paid. Following the long and harrowing French and Indian War, Britain was deep in debt and George Grenville was appointed British Chancellor. He was determined to pay off the debt by brutally taxing the colonies. He not only reinforced the ignored Navigation Acts, but he placed the new Sugar Act which was similar to the Molasses Act which put a tax on rum and molasses imported from West Indies, but this Act would be enforced. Needless to say, the colonists were not used to this intrusion of Parliament and felt that it was wrong because there were no members in Parliament to represent the colonies. They felt it was a direct violation of their civil liberties and the first whiff of resentment was beginning to spawn. Next was the Currency Act which disregarded the colonies paper money, forcing the colonist to pay in only silver and sending their economy into chaos. Perhaps the most important and controversial acts were the Stamps Acts that placed a tax on legal documents, almanacs, newspaper, pamphlets, playing cards and dice.
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war between England and the colonies which were settled earlier by the English. There were many factors and events that led to the American Revolution. The Revolution was mainly an economic rebellion that was fueled by taxation without representation following the French and Indian War. The English Parliament was more often than not considered cruel and unfair by the colonists. With conflicts over trade, taxes and government representation, the colonies were at a starting line of a revolution that would later transform into the basis of the United States of America.
In the 1770’s the American colonists were being taxed too much by the British and they started to want their independence. Britain was taxing the colonists to pay their debts from the French and Indian War. The colonists started to fight back by tarring and feathering some tax collectors. Britain sent troops to the colonies which caused more problems.
Some of the colonists were divided about the Intolerable Acts because they thought the people involved in the Boston Tea Party acted irrationally and gave American's a bad name. Others were incensed that the actions of Parliament caused such a drastic reaction from the colonists.
The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation. The Tea Act was also passed by Parliament to help lower the surplus of tea that was created by the financially troubled British East India Company. The colonists responded to this act by executing the Boston Tea Party which tossed all of the tea that was imported into the port of Boston. This precipitated the Boston Port Act which did not permit the colonists to import goods through this port. The colonists protested and refused all of these acts which helped stir the feelings of rebellion among the colonists. The British Mercantilist economy prevented the colonists from coin...
This land was Ohio, much of the Mississippi valley and Canada. This at first was pleasing to the colonists because they saw the opportunity to expand, many even began purchasing land. These plans were cut short with the Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation declared that there would be no expansion past the Appellation Mountains. This proclamation was an attempt to cease quarrels with the Native Americans and even obtain their cooperation. This angered the colonists because they felt that they were entitled to the new land that Britain had just procured. Also following the French and Indian War was the Quartering Act. In 1765 the British forced the colonists to house British Soldiers. The British felt that it would be wise to keep soldiers in the colonies, not only to protect its new land from threats, but to also keep an eye on the colonies. Quartering soldiers in the colonist’s houses would save the British Empire a substantial amount of money. The colonists would be asked to build barracks for the soldiers, however the cost would be too high so they refused to build. Another reason this angered the colonists was, they felt it unnecessary to have troops when they had a
The Boston tea party was a brief incident among many, composing, economic, and political crisis that ultimately caused a revolution. These events consisted of The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, the Tea Act, and of course the Boston Tea Party. The incident caused by the colonies infuriated the British government therefore as punishment parliament responded to the abuse with the Coercive Acts of 1774 . When the thirteen colonies once again decided to resist the British troops revolution spread. “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This act later on lead to the American Revolutionary War, were years later independence was
The problem for many American colonists was not that taxes were high (the taxes were actually quite low, particularly compared with those paid by ordinary citizens of Britain), but that the colonies were not consulted about the new taxes, as they had no representation in Parliament. The colonists did not have any voting rights with regards to the taxes and so in order to avoid having to pay the taxes imposed on them the colonist’s boycotted British goods. This eventually led to the Boston Tea Party and other boycotts.
Next came the Intolerable Acts, a series of laws passed by Great Britain to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party and to strengthen British control over the Colonies. The Patriots viewed the Acts as a violation of the rights of Massachusetts, and in September 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to organize a protest. As tensions grew, the American Revolutionary War officially commenced in April 1775.
In 1773, the Tea Act placed taxes on tea, threatening the power of the colonies. The colonies, however, fought back by pouring expensive tea into the Boston harbor in an event now known as the Boston Tea Party. The enraged Parliament quickly passed the Intolerable Acts, shutting down the port of Boston and taking control over the colonies.
Wars affect a country one way another, either for best or for the worst. The outcome of the war can change a country and the citizens of the country. The American Revolutionary was a war where the affect was tremendous. The American Revolution began in 1775 till 1783. The American Revolution is also known as the United States War of Independence. As soon as people left England to come to United States there was smell of revolution in the air. The revolutionary war was a way for the United States to make a statement and move forward as a country that wasn’t underneath the British rule. John Adams, the second prime minister of the United States explains how the American Revolution began when he says, “The Revolution was affected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people” . Adam basically means that everyone was thinking about the revolution and in their minds they were already there, wanting to break free from the British rule. Once everyone was against England the people were ready for war. The American Revolution started for many reasons, some of the few are; social, economic, and political changes. These changes provided America to be an independent country with its own government. The increase in strict laws and violent events made many Americans angry and that’s why the revolution began. The French and Indian war, taxes without representation, as well as the first continental congress. These are just some of the reasons that Americans wanted the revolution; there are many more causes that can be justified for this major event. Americans did not want to be ruled by the British who were thousands of miles away from them, they wanted to have control of their country and have their own laws....