American Revolution Dbq

In the wrongdoings England performed to prevent America from gaining power, England attempted to regain complete control over the colonies. However, the colonists were ignoring England’s rules due to inability to enforce them, and protested the King and Parliament. England’s weaknesses began to shine through, and the natural course of action was conflict.

Throughout the time period, England had been rapidly imposing tariffs and taxes upon the innocents of the colonies to raise profit and weaken the economy. Acts such as the Stamp Act and Coercive Acts violated their rights, and the Sugar Act heavily affected merchants’ ability to keep a profit. The Coercive Acts were a little different, however, as their primary focus was destroying the morale and economy of everyone in Massachusetts, then the center of rebellious thoughts and ideals.

The commander of the Militia, John Parker,

wrote a deposition concerning the battle at Lexington, stating “[we are] not to be discovered nor meddle with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they insult or molest us,” attempting to inform all members that they are not to fire. The success of this statement is unclear, as it is uncertain which side fired first. This began the battle at Lexington, which would end in a loss for both sides. This battle, however, was a clear sign of things to come: Revolution. Though it did begin on the pretense of pushing back the Brits, later in the war the leaders of the colonies agreed that independence was a final goal of the conflict.
In the American Revolution, a certain sentence spoken by, ironically, an Englishman named Samuel Johnson stated “If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming he original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.” It is strange to hear of an Englishman who did support the revolution, and even stranger that his sentence would be true in the end of the conflict. The corrupt actions the King and Parliament performed in a fruitless attempt to create a stricter control were denounced, and the Americans freed themselves. It seems that England might still have control of us even today, had they maintained at least partial salutary neglect.
John Jay’s treaty with Great Britain after the Revolution represents things that, during the war, would never have happened.

This upholds the idea that nature would reclaim its rights: Britain agreed to the terms, enforcing a greater peace between themselves and America, removing all garrisons and troops, but not settlers or traders, and establishing trade with Britain and land rights to America. This treaty in its entirety reset everything that Britain had done to the way it was before the Revolution.

Though Britain may have agreed to these terms in 1794, before then there was a lot of disagreement. In Thomas Paine’s American Crisis writings, Chapter VIII, he writes a letter addressing all English citizens, telling them that “[they] have experienced the expenses, but nothing of the miseries of war.” He describes to them the tragedies and misfortunes that befall those who live in a war zone, preaching of the horror, and the frustration that England causes by bringing war unto the innocent people of America, therefore steeling their minds against anything the Royal Army could do to

them.
In this time, a now famous man by the name of Patrick Henry gave a speech entitled Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, a speech about the false abstract concept of hope that everyone clings to, ideals of peace being wrong, and that war is beginning. His very last statement repeats the title, emphasizing that he’d die before losing his liberty. Earlier in the speech, he makes it apparent that he is speaking to the President directly, trying to tell him that war has arrived at last, and that he should prepare for the worst. An interesting line: “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past…” shows an ideal of history repeating itself, though there isn’t an event quite like this one. Henry does seem to imply in that line that his “lamp” of experience will guide him to the most evident course of action for both sides: conflict.
Before the Revolution or American Crisis, or Liberty or Death, however, the British had been trying too hard to oppose everything they’d done prior to the mid 1700’s. They decided to start cracking down and imposing taxes such as the Stamp Act and Sugar Act to try and weaken colonial economy, contrary to what the colonists loved of salutary neglect, and this caused the path to conflict to begin to raise up, and rebellion to rear its head. Britain tried to weaken Massachusetts, the home of the Patriots, but it only became a martyr for the rest of the colonies. The King thought his authority granted by God, and final as Royal Decree to all. Unfortunately for him, this ideal was not so strong with his opposition, and the Americans’ commitment to the conflict allowed them to pull through in the end, and push what little British authority existed away to its home. Like grass regrowing after a fire, the weakened American citizens brought together a complete government that would endure for ages.
In the end, the final outcome of the Revolution is obvious. The conquest of Britain to retain the American colonies as it did India was a failure, and America separated itself for several years from any ties with the former strongest country in the world. The corruption present in how the King and Parliament treated the poor colonists faded away to nothing, and the world evolved to let this event pass into history.