American Revolution Dbq

The colonists in the new world were right to go to war against Britain, and they were successful in doing so. They were unhappy in their relationship with Britain. The colonists felt degraded and oppressed and they did not like how things were run, because of this, they rebelled. The hatred of arbitrary government had been placed in the colonies since their settlement first began. The American Revolution was more than a struggle to free the colonies from British control it was a struggle to establish a country by themselves. They desired a free and abundant life and safety from oppression; that is one of the main reasons they founded the colonies in the first place. The colonists wished to achieve a country separate from Britain, and to establish a self-sustaining free nation built on fairness (Miller, 1959).

The colonists were unhappy with their relationship with their mother country. Britain was only concerned for their own well-being and they only wanted to make as much money off the colonies as they possibly could. They invested more time, supplies, and money in areas that gave them more profit. This resulted in England spending more money in the South because the South produced things like tobacco and other crops, the North was not so lucky. The North did not provide

anything for the English, and they stayed in debt because of this (Wahlke, 2008). Britain also treated the colonists terribly. In British eyes, the colonists were beneath them, and they only associated with the colonists if they had to. Britain’s commercial laws were to make the colonists the slaves of Britain. This helped justify the war by giving the colonists another reason to resent Britain. This reason was Britain was selfish and arrogant (Miller, 1959).
One reason the colonists rebelled against Britain was the confusion of British law. There was no written form of law or rights in Britain. The rules were just implied, and one could be found guilty of something that they did not even know was wrong. Without a written form, the justice system was unstable and unbalanced. The colonists said their liberties would never be secure until the British Constitution had been written and approved by Englishmen and Americans. Even today, there is no written form of Britain's laws (Miller, 1959).
The person that was mostly responsible for the causes of the Revolutionary War was The King of England. The King was a tyrant. King George III acted with deliberate intention and terrible motive. He was a selfish, corrupt, and an unfit ruler. There is a long list in the Declaration of Independence of everything he did against America. The King forbid his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance. His crimes included fatiguing his legislature with his agendas. The King also refused elections of others and made judges dependent on his will alone. He kept standing armies in America during times of peace without consent and deprived the colonist's benefits like trial by jury. He cut off trade with all parts of the world and abolished their most valuable laws. The King also burned down the colonists towns and destroyed their lives. He was unworthy of his position as head of a nation. The King’s actions were one of the main causes of the Revolutionary War because he was a terrible leader (Becker, 2016).
Another reason the colonists rebelled appeared when Britain proclaimed both the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act. Britain needed to pay war debts after the French and Indian War. They decided that the colonists were severely undertaxed. Britain instructed colonial governors to report contraband and commanded the Navy to patrol America's ports for smugglers. The Sugar Act was created in 1764, and it was another way that Britain violated the colonists’ rights. Britain claimed the Sugar Act was just and necessary, and that revenue was raised in their majesty's said dominions in America. It was a revised version of the old regulations, the old taxes and rules. The Sugar Act was greeted with resistance by the colonists. The Sugar Act caused considerable alarm in the colonies. Merchants and store owners could not obey it and stay in business. The store owners could barely afford the taxes. America blamed both the establishment and the enforcement for this taxation. Many colonists felt that it was a violation of their rights and they should not pay these taxes because they were passed in England, not by their colonial governments (Morgan, 1953).
Another form of taxation was The Stamp Act.

The Stamp Act made the colonists pay a tax for any paper that required a stamp. Unlike the Sugar Act, this act affected everyone instead of primarily merchants and store owners. Now everyone could not pay the taxes. “The Stamp Act swept all the rivulets into one central stream of resistance and revealed that Americans already passed the prerequisite to united actions against the mother country: a common ideology” (Miller, 1959, 169). The Stamp Act was denounced as encroachment by parliament upon royal prerogative. Both acts were met with resistance such as riots because no one liked to be taxed by a country hundreds of miles away (Miller,

1959).
The colonists were upset with Britain so they went to war and for seven long years they fought for their independence. . Even after the colonists won the Revolutionary War, their work was still not done . Just because the military phase of the revolution was a success did not mean the new nation was free of all its problems. The colonists did not obtain their goals immediately. After the war, the colonists had many things to do, the colonists still had to create an independent and self sustaining government. They needed to establish a united country and create a stable government based on the things they wanted. They tried many times before reaching success and creating a self-sustaining government (Barck, 1968).
The years following the American Revolution were filled with experiments and trials. By asserting independence, the colonies abandoned the privileges of British subjects because of this, they were unable to complain. One of the priorities the colonists had was to create a written form of laws and rights. Thus, the Articles of Confederation was created to form the basis America would be built on (Barck, 1968). The Declaration of Independence gave citizens the right to overthrow the government if it was too corrupt. Now, because of the Declaration of Independence, the colonists were able to declare war, conclude peace, contract alliances, and establish commerce. The Declaration of Independence was written so that no one could misinterpret the laws (Becker, 2016).
America refused to be anything like Britain so much so that they withheld using the word parliament in The Declaration of Independence (Beaker, 2016). Instead of a monarchy, they created a democracy. They elected a president and created a government built on fairness and equality. They learned how to compromise and establish meetings to discuss important matters such as making and amending laws, or addressing problems such as debt. They allowed the states to have a say in many things, such as electing officials and the making of new rules. Later, they established a system, called checks and balances, that balanced out everything so no one entity would have power and authority over the others (Miller, 1959).
America came together through a mutual want for independence. Many Americans believed the ultimate success could not be obtained until the central government was united. Everyone was committed to freedom. They were thoroughly united in wishing to institute new government in place of the British government (Becker, 2016). Focused on independence, the colonists made sure their efforts in the Revolutionary War did not go to waste. The whole country worked together to establish a nation that they would want to live in and a place they would want to raise their children. They achieved this with great deal of hard and extensive labor (Miller, 1959).
The colonists were right to go to war against Britain. King George III was a terrible King and unfit to rule Britain, let alone America, who was a whole ocean away. By revolting, the early Americans helped pave the way for future generations. Even though the colonists did not rush into rebellion, they knew it had to be done. If they had not revolted, who knows where we would be? Going to war against Britain was a huge risk, but the colonists success was worth it and in the end, they created the independent and free country that is America.