The development of the American colonies throughout the 1700s led to the American Revolutionary War and the colonies declaring freedom from Great Britain. The colonies were thriving and succeeding under their own establishment and own sense of leadership. While each colony developed their own system of jurisdictions under Great Britain, they each develop differently. The individuality of each of the colonies allowed them to progress and eventually work together from the obscure laws of England. The Virginia and Massachusetts colonies influence the American people to fight for their rights against Britain. Great Britain’s irrational jurisdictions placed on the colonies such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and virtual representation led Virginia and Massachusetts to undertake American soil as their own. First, the establishment and development of the Virginia Colony will have greater influence in the movement to freedom. Jamestown was “the first permanent English settlement in North America, establish in 1607…by the Virginia Company” (Roak 53). The settlement of Jamestown gave birth to the Virginia Colony and through this giving birth to a house of government. The House of Burgesses was the mecca of government as “…an assembly of representatives (called burgesses) elected by the colony’s …show more content…
male inhabitants. The Virginia Colony had a great influence over the other colonies when it came to paying taxes and following other government laws. Although Great Britain try to regained control over the colonies by increasing in taxes through the Sugar Act, Virginia was able to influence the people to question Britain’s right to tax Americans (Roak 141). Secondly, the Massachusetts Bay Colony established in 1629 was one of the colonies Great Britain targeted most.
The Stamp Act and the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts was what pushed the Massachusetts Colony to seek freedom from England. “The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all paper used for official documents…”(Roak 141). This placed greater taxation on the people which revenue was primarily sent to England for profit. Massachusetts was not going to serve as an example of exploitation from England. They decided to act upon the irrational laws against England. The second act under the Coercive Acts, established “…underscoring Parliament’s claim to supremacy over Massachusetts” (Roak
151). Thirdly, the colonies were under a virtual representation. The colonies did not have someone seated in Parliament to take their side when discussing the future of the colonies (Class Notes, chapter 6). Not only this placed the colonies under an unfair voting rights, but it also gave advantage to England to control the colonies. “American colonies rejected the theory of virtual representation, arguing that only direct representation had the right to tax the colonies” (Roak 141). The Boston Massacre and incident In March 1770 “…in which British soldiers fired on an American crowd, killing five…” (Roak 148), set the colonies in a mentally of fear and urgency to act against England. In all, the different laws and event that occurred in the Massachusetts and Virginia Colonies set the stage for the colonies to fight for their freedom. All these events that occurred between the Massachusetts, Virginia, and alongside the other colonies led to the fight for independence from Great Britain. The strengths and promptly acting against England, the colonies strong development and progression allowed them to build up to fight for their freedom. Massachusetts and Virginia were the two main colonies to have contributed to the movement of freedom despite their differences in religion, culture, and politics.
One of the British actions that angered the colonists was the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was passed in response to colonist's complaints about the Sugar Act. The Stamp Act, according to the chart in document one, forced colonists to buy a stamp and place it on all of their paper products. Colonists boycotted the Stamp Act and and formed the Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty, according to document two, tarred and feathered British officials and tax collectors to protest the Stamp A...
The British were facing economic difficulties after the French and Indian war; therefore, they passed taxes on the colonies to help repay the debt. Initially, the British introduced the Sugar Act in 1764. The colonists did not approve of the British taking control over them. The colonists opposed the Sugar Act because they had to pay three cent tax on sugar. In addition, the Sugar Act increased the taxes on coffee, indigo, and wine. This act was the start of colonist frustration. Subsequently came the Stamp Act the following year in 1765. The Stamp Act was the mind changer for many colonists known as the Patriots. The Patriots started forming as a result of England enforcing acts. The patriots believed the colonies should go to war and separate
In the 1760s King George III enacted the Sugar Act and the Stamp act to gain extra revenue from his colonies. King George III decided to enact heavier taxes to put money back into the empire that had been lost after the French and Indian War. This act levied heavy taxes on sugar imported from the West Indies. The Stamp Act in 1765 required that many items have a stamp to prove that the owner had payed for the taxes on the item. The problem the colonists had with it was that it increased the presence of English troops in the Colonies and they felt it was unneeded and only meant to put more control into Great Britain's hands.
There were a myriad of differences between Great Britain and her American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but these differences can be divided into three basic categories: economic, social, and political. The original American settlers came to the colonies for varied reasons, but a common trait among these settlers was that they still considered themselves British subjects. However, as time passed, the colonists grew disenfranchised from England. Separated from the king by three thousand miles and living in a primitive environment where obtaining simple necessities was a struggle, pragmatism became the common thread throughout all daily life in the colonies. It was this pragmatism that led the colonists to create their own society with a unique culture and system of economics and politics.
The American Revolution is without a question one of the, if not the most, important period in the beginning of American history. Between 1765 and 1783, the colonists rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy after a series of taxes and tariffs were forced upon them, finally the colonists then ultimately overthrew their authority and founded the United States of America. Many historians and authors have debated over the exact reason and overall effects of the War for Independence, however, all agree of the significance and importance of this event. The colonies, which were created as a resource for raw materials and a means for generating profits for Parliament and the Crown, began to desire managing their own affairs and worked towards
So the government decided to place taxes in. The Stamp Act was taxes, the Stamp Act it states, “Right and Power to lay Taxes and Impositions upon the inhabitants of this Colony.” It was hard for the merchant to trade because they had to pay taxes to people. In Zinn it said that merchants helped start a protest against the stamp act, “A political group in Boston called the Loyal Nine-merchants, distillers, shipowners, and master craftsmen who opposed the Stamp Act-organized a procession in August 1765 to protest it.” This shows that they didn’t like being tax. In “We are equally Free,” in said “Two years earlier, some merchants had organized boycotts against certain products imported from Great Britain (a strategy known as nonimportation) to resist British taxation measures aimed at the rebellious Americans.” As shown by this tried to protest
Between 1607 and 1733, Great Britain established thirteen colonies in the New World along the land’s eastern coast. England’s colonies included Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Though the colonies were classified as New England, middle or southern colonies, the colonists developed a unifying culture. With this new American culture, the colonists throughout the colonies began to think differently than their English cousins. Because colonial America displayed characteristics of a democratic society and, therefore, deviated from England’s monarchic ways, it was established as a democratic society.
A new era was dawning on the American colonies and its mother country Britain, an era of revolution. The American colonists were subjected to many cruel acts of the British Parliament in order to benefit England itself. These British policies were forcing the Americans to rebellious feelings as their rights were constantly being violated by the British Crown. The colonies wanted to have an independent government and economy so they could create their own laws and stipulations. The British imperial policies affected the colonies economic, political, and geographic situation which intensified colonists’ resistance to British rule and intensified commitment to their republican values.
Although put into effect only a year after the less-contested Sugar and Currency Acts, Parliament received more significant pushback on the passage of this tax when colonists formed the Stamp Act Congress in October of the same year. At the Stamp Act Congress, delegates expressed frustration about another tax levied by Parliament and stated, “it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes should be imposed on [the people], but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.” This reaction to the tax was the most active resistance colonists expressed to Parliament, but this also showed the deepening divide between how colonists’ view of their rights and Parliament’s view of the colonists’ rights. Colonists started viewing Parliament’s taxes as an infringement upon the rights entitled to them as British subjects, yet the lack of revolt against the Sugar and Currency Acts showed Parliament could justify taxes levied against the colonists without their consent. To placate the colonists, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March of 1766 but reminded colonists of the sovereignty they held over and ability to tax them with the simultaneous passage of the Declaratory Act. Colonists felt elated and empowered because of their success in achieving the Stamp Act’s repeal. They believed they fought against taxation without their consent, yet the Declaratory Act quickly reminded colonists that they held little political power in the empire. The act was a turning point in the ever-growing division between Parliament and the British American colonies. Parliament saw a need to reassert their authority across the Atlantic where recent successes with rebellions planted political confidence and a colonial political identity began taking
Leading up to the time of the Revolutionary War, seven policies were passed by Britain in hopes of controlling the colonies. These acts culminated in the Quebec Act which persuaded many Americans into supporting the revolutionary effort. The Proclamation of 1763 was the first policy passed by the British. This forbid any settlement west of Appalachia because the British feared conflicts over territory in this region. The proclamation, however, infuriated the colonists who planned on expanding westward. The Sugar Act was passed shortly after in 1764. This act sought harsher punishment for smugglers. The next act to be passed was possibly the most controversial act passed by Britain. The Stamp Act passed in 1765 affected every colonist because it required all printed documents to have a stamp purchased from the British authority. The colonist boycotted British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed but quickly replaced by the Declaratory Act in 1766. The British still held onto the conviction that they had the right to tax the Americans in any way they deemed necessary. The Declaratory Act was followed by the Townshend Acts of 1767. This imposed taxes on all imported goods from Britain, which caused the colonies to refuse trading with Britain. Six years passed before another upsetting act was passed. 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.
The tyranny of the Crown created turmoil politically. Its restriction of legislative power of the colonists further separated the two. The friction between Massachusetts and the Crown for legislative power is a prime example of this. The Parliaments political platform throughout the course of the rising nation did not sit well with the settlers. And thus, added to the struggle for independence. The Virginia Company’s attempt to gain the local Natives failed, and cause a separation between the two. This was mended with the creation of local economies boosted by
American colonies have been building themselves from the ground since day one. However, Great Britain thinks that the colonies are how they are now was all thanks to the supports of England. After the war French and Indian War, the Parliament believes that it is the colonies’ duties to help Great Britain with the enormous debt. As a result, the Stamp Act is passed in an unfair and unjustified manner. In fact, the colonies did not have any saying in the matter of passing the Act. Therefore, the Stamp Act, as the very least, should not be applied to them.
The colonies and Great Britain had different notions about the nature of their relationship. The British believed that the colonies were an extension of the mother land but did not hold the same prestige since the colonies were to serve a need, not the other way around. The Declaratory Act said, “…That the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be, subordinate unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain…” (Pickering). This was written by the British Parliament demonstrates that the colonies were never meant to operate independently but under the direct control of the crown. If Britain was the market place, the colonies were the factories that the British government started.
Self-government and individual freedom were not easy things to accomplish for the colonists in colonial america but they were what they needed to live the life they wanted. They wanted to be allowed citizens to take part in decision that have to do with the wellbeing of the country. As a self-governing colony they were entitled to elect rulers who do not have to answer to England or another imperial power. The people they voted for would be part of a council where rules were made to control the colonies. Individual freedom and self-government were major parts of the revolution and greatly influenced what America is today.
From the year the first people found America continent, the British government became the ruler of America. The Parliament made the colonies conquered the Native American tribes. But later on, the British ignored what the colonies did for them, and started to cause troubles for the colonies. When it is at the point where the Parliament issued the acts of unaffordable taxes, with so much bad thing built up, the colonies united together and started to fight. After seven years of the American revolution, the society had experienced dramatic changes on people’s life.