Instigating the American Revolution

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In attempting to describe the origins of Revolution, American abolitionist Wendell Phillips once stated, “Revolutions always begin with the populace, never with the leaders. They argue, they resolve, they organize; it is the populace that, like the edge of the cloud, shows the lightning first.” However, when looking at the foundations of the American Revolution, this was simply not the case. Yes, while it is true that the colonists did organize and argue over how to communicate their grievances effectively with Great Britain, the idea of cutting their ties from Britian was the last thing that came to their minds. In this sense, it was the the British Parliament and King, not the populace, who instigated the American Revolution. The Parliament did this by ignoring the Colonist's protests through passing the Tea Act, which was viewed by many in the colonies as a way to tempt people from their boycott of British goods, and the King did this by refusing John Dickinson's Olive Branch Proposal – a proposal which showed the last of Colonial attempts to mend the problem Parliament started without going into Revolution.
The first way the British instigated the American Revolution was through Parliament's decision to pass the Tea Act of 1773 in order to bring to an end the non-consumption protests that began shortly after the passage of the Stamp Act eight years earlier. Prior to the Stamp Act, many colonists enjoyed the British goods that were provided to them. Because of the general prosperity that the colonists had at this time, British exports allowed people from all classes to partake of the luxuries of the British elite, including tea and silks. As Englishman Alexander Hamilton noted in a conversation he had with William Morrison, a...

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...he reason for this was two-fold: First, because Parliament ignored the petitions of the colonists by passing the Tea Act, they triggered the actions of the Boston Tea Party with all of the tyrannical actions proceeding it – mainly the Boston Port Bill. Second, because the King chose to reject the colonists' petition for assistance against the actions of Parliament, they then chose to consider the options of Independence that Paine was able to address. If either party chose to actually listen to the grievances of the colonists, perhaps the Revolution wouldn't have happened: Parliament could have understood why the colonists chose to not consume British goods and the King might have been able to resolve the animosity between Parliament and the colonies. However, because they chose not to listen the populace chose to react, and that reaction was the American Revolution.

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