Evaluate the relative importance of two of the following as factors prompting Americans to rebel in 1776. Parliamentary Taxation The legacy of colonial religious and political ideas British military measures Restrictions of Civil Liberty Some say that the Revolution was destined to happen ever since Settlers set foot on this continent, others argue that it would not have happened if it weren't for a set of issues that finally drove the colonists to revolt. Ultimately, Britain lost control in 1765 when they gave in to the Stamp Act Congress’s boycotts against parliamentary taxation and gave them the idea that they had the power to run a country. To a lesser degree, Salutary Neglect led to the conception of a legacy of colonial religious and political ideals which set in motion an eminent conflict. During this period, England “forgot” about the colonies and gave them colonists a taste of independence and suspicions of individual political theories. Through Parliament's ruthless taxation without representation and a near opposite religious and political mindset, Britain and the colonists were heaved into a revolutionary war. 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.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
The parliamentary taxes were primarily the main reason for colonial rebellion; the colonies if being taxed very simply wanted representation in parliament. The British military measures and restriction of civil liberties are next because they are really tied together. Without one there could not be the other, and then last comes the legacy of colonial religion and political ideas. The sudden end to salutary neglect would impact the colonists in ways that the British could not have imagined, and would eventually be a main cause for the American Revolution, and forming of a new independent nation.
The first biggest problem was War debt. Due to the fact Britain helped the Colonists win the war. They felt that the colonists should help pay off the debt. They imposed taxes on the Colonists. It was a terrible failure. It created uproar and many people protested and boycotted British goods. One of the biggest events was the Boston Tea Party, where a group of men from the Sons of Liberty boarded a merchant ship and threw all the tea into the ocean. This was to protest the new tax on tea. They were angry they were taxed without a say in the matter and many declared “No taxation without Representation”. Unfortunately, after the Boston Tea party a big new law known as the Intolerable Acts was put into place because the British were very angry at the damage caused at the event. They chose to punish all of
The colonists took up arms against their officials because they were unhappy how they were all wealthy lawyers. This all happened because of the population increase during the early 1760´s. People other than farmers started inhabiting the Carolinas. The crops of the farmers failed causing many farmers to go into debt. The lawyers were needed for the farmers to straighten out the money they owed to the government. The lawyers were then able to gain powerful positions in the government because the farmers were indebted to them. By 1764, thousands of colonists were unhappy with the tyranny the rich officials had created. The taxes became high and the tax collectors corrupt. They would remove the records of the taxes they collected just so they could go back and get more money. The Regulators began attacking officials the the government and destroying court houses. The Regulator Movement eventually fell apart because of the lack of control by the many leaders of the rebellion. This event fueled the American Revolution because of the similarities of the the tyrannical leaders of both
Imagine you are an American Colonists just making ends meet as a merchant. There has recently been a war between the French and the British. During the war, you continued to trade with the enemy and smuggle goods, while your colonial assembly repeatedly refused to provide military officials with men and supplies. The war eventually ends, leaving the British with debt and expensive responsibilities to administer newly acquired territory in North America, they received from the French. Believing that the Navigation Acts should be enforced strictly and that the lightly taxed colonists should pay a share of the empire's defense costs, Parliament in March 1765 passes the Stamp Act to raise revenue. Next thing you know Parliament imposes another act on the colonies, the Mutiny Act, stating that the colonists must house and maintain the British troops. Ok, you are a bit mad, but it is maintainable. Out of the blue, you hear about a shooting in Boston, where five people were shoot by the British troops, there is a lot of propaganda surrounding. Your neighbors, along with yourself are enraged by what you hear. Following this incident there is much propaganda in pamphlets passed out concerning colonial religion and political ideas. These things and others happened to the colonists and impart enthralled and provoked them to rebel and in effect brought about the American Revolution. From the information I have gathered in class and from my own personal reading, I have concurred that Parliament taxation was the parent irritation to the other annoyances. The Seven Years' War Showed the British officials that the Americans had no regard for the Navigation Acts and imperial authority.
There were a lot of events leading up to the colonists deciding to finally declare their independence from Great Britain. The British put numerous taxes on the colonies, which they sought to be unfair. The stamp tax and the tea tax were just a few of the taxes that upset the colonists with the British. Colonists protested these acts in many ways. The Sons of Liberty were a group that was created to protest and they were responsible for such demonstrations as The Boston Tea Party.
The mistake that King George and the rest of Britain made was thinking that they could forever keep the colonies under their thumb. These were not the same colonists who came over as British citizens to set up forts. These men and women thought of themselves and American citizens and they did not need a government across the ocean telling them what to do. Ultimately, Britain lost control when they gave in to the colonists' boycotts and showed them that they had the power to run a country, and that Britain feared that power. Through Parliament's ruthless taxation without representation, restrictions upon what colonists had assumed were civil liberties and British military action, Britain and the colonists were thrown into a revolutionary war.
By the time the colonists had settled into their new land they had established some order such as small governments to keep the colonies in line. The ocean separating England and the colonies made it difficult though for England to guide the colonists successfully the way they had wanted. The main thing the British tried was implementing taxes, but they also went so far as letting the colonies on their own for awhile and using military to keep them in place. On the other hand, the colonists saw that the British were stalling their attempts at self-governing so they worked together to disregard any British policies. By the eve of the Revolution, colonists had developed a sense of their identity and unity as Americans that was brought about by the British parliament. Exasperated by British efforts to hinder their growing self-reliance, colonists began pushing them away by doing various things such as rioting, boycotting, or voicing their opinions on paper.
The American Revolution was a war in which the colonists achieved political independence from their former rulers Great Britain. It was "the formulation of new principles of the relation of men to government, and of the relation of colonies to mother country. It was the inauguration of effective self-government and of social and economic equality."1 The colonists, in effect, achieved full autonomy from Great Britain through the American Revolution. The colonists felt (for the betterment of all Americans) that it was their duty and responsibility to rise up against their oppressors to form their own government. John Adams even states, "[that] the real American Revolution was a radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people. Above all, [the Revolution] was in the minds and hearts of the peopl...
For a colony of the British government to rebel against the large, wealthy English country needed to take an extreme amount of resentment towards that group. The British themselves caused this resentment towards the English government. Act passes by the government caused this feeling; these acts began with the quartering acts of 1765. The quartering act of 1765 confirmed the colonist’s need for an independent, free nation because of subjugation of the colonists by the English government. This subjugation spurred a movement that ended in revolution.
The American Revolution began due to problems within the British economy. The most prevalent issue of the time was "taxation without
The most fundamental reason for the American Revolution was the colonist’s outrage over taxation which led to a tax revolt launched by people who were tired of the burden of paying unfair taxes. The king placed taxes known as Townsend Acts, on the colonist’s tea, paper, paint, lead, glass, and many other items that were used daily and the colonists were against this taxing. The purpose of the Townsend Acts was to help pay the cost of government in America. Lawyer James Otis and other colonist rebels referred to King George as a tyrant. As stated by James Otis in The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1763), . . . “The very act of taxing exercised over those who are not represented appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and if continued seems to be in effect and entire
The relationship between Britain and her Americans colonies slowly deteriorated between the 1750s and the beginning of the American Revolution. When the first British immigrants settled in America, the relationship of the colonies and their mother country was somewhat peaceful. In the following generations, however, their relationship became tenser as Britain imposed policies and taxes on unrepresented American colonists. The British believed they were right in doing so because they had large debts to pay from ongoing wars with France. These taxes caused uprisings among colonists which contributed to British occupation in America, leading to more rebellions. Eventually, the rift in the relationship between the colonists and the British led to the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new country.
The French and Indian War set the stage for future events that no one could ever have imagined. The economic practice of mercantilism, which insured profit only to the mother country was the accepted practice between England and her colonies. As long as these economic policies were met, England left much of the day to day governing of the colonies up to the colonies. It was this "salutory neglect" that ultimately led to the ideological differences between England and the colonies. England won the war, but it paid a great price for that victory. England was bankrupted, and as a result had no choice but to look to her colonies to regain financial stability. The pressures of taxation and naval restrictions imposed by the crown and Parliament, were viewed by the colonists as tyrannical acts. Although the colonies were on a path to becoming "Americanized" they held the lessons of Magna Carta, the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 close to their heart. In their eyes, "Englishmen had rights" under the laws of the mother country. It was only when these laws were usurpted by the crown that the colonies had no choice but to protest their discontent. The political authority that England executed over the colonies after so many years of neglect led to the ideological differences that would ultimately result in the American Revolution.
Between 1774 to 1776 the protest literature in the colonies went from discontent with laws passed by Great Britain’s Parliament to calling the King of England himself out on his abuses to the colonists. The Coercive/Intolerable Acts were a key driver in the maturation of views. Anxiety felt by loyalist caused reactionary situation, e.g. Lord Dunmore seizing gunpowder, also pushed more colonists towards independence. The shift from anger being directed from Parliament to the King is what made the protest literature so