Revolutionary War Dbq

One of the greatest political and power shifts of the second century happened in North America in the middle 1700’s. Spawned out of the American Revolution’s ideals, the world’s idea of political leadership began to shift from monarchies to democracies and republics. Although the war in it of itself and the political ramifications of it have been studied extensively. Like many topics, the causes and reasons for the war and the ideas born from it are not always as examined. This essay will scratch the surface of some of the more important causes leading up to the war. But first a little background, in the 1750’s the British government took on a lot of debt to fight the French/Indian War in the Americas and believed the colonists should help

them pay it through taxes (Ch.

6 Lecture, Pg 9-10). Before this point all taxes on the American colonies were taxed externally via exports/imports taxes (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 14). However, these taxes were rarely paid and made less money for the Government then they paid the tax collectors (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 10). Furthermore, through the 1760’s King George III, The British Parliament, and the American colonists will make a series of poor choices that will eventually lead to The Revolutionary War. The most important of those poor choices that lead to The Revolutionary War is the passing of The Stamp Act, The Boston Massacre, and The Boston Tea Party.
The first of those poor choices was The Stamp Act which was the most important Act passed because it directly leads to one of the main issues that argued about leading up to the revolution, which was the idea that there should be no taxation without representation. Why did this become a huge

deal? Because the Stamp Act was the first act passed by Parliament that affected everyone in the colonies. Before the Stamp Act was passed, the Molasses Act was passed which taxed molasses used to make rum (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg. 10). But, with the Molasses Act, you could find ways around it or just not drink rum. However, with the passing of the Stamp Act everything from Newspapers to legal and government documents had to have a Stamp (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg. 12). The Stamp act made finding those who weren’t following the law so much easier. If your paper didn’t have the stamp you were a criminal (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 15). Not only that, for the colonist buying newspapers or pamphlets they now were directly supporting the British government. Additionally, in a non-direct way, the act interfered with the freedom of the press/speech, which we know was an important idea to our forefathers. If a newspaper company was writing anti-British government articles they wouldn’t want to have to get a stamp for their paper. Neither would the government probably give it to them. Thus interfering with that newspapers ability to create legal content. All this lead to many of the local governments beginning to either talk about or passing laws that stated that they didn’t have to pay the taxes because they didn’t have representation and that they shouldn’t have to pay British taxes at all (Ch. 6 Lecture, pg. 13).
Subsequently, The Boston Massacre was the biggest step made by the British towards the war because once they fired at their own citizens there would be no going back in the mind of the American Colonists. Before the massacre in it of itself, the people of Boston were already upset that there were soldiers in their streets. Not only were they patrolling the town, they did a poor job of respecting the culture and traditions of the town. They wouldn’t observe the Sabbath, they used obscene language and treated the locals poorly. The tensions between the soldiers and locals came to a head when, after being provoked, the British soldiers shot at civilians in the streets of Boston, hitting 11 of them and killing 5 (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 21). This was a huge turning point for the colonists. The British had killed their own citizens on their own soil. Once this happened the American colonists knew that they had to start preparing for more violence. If the British were going to use their weapons against them then the Americans needed to start weapons and war supplies to respond to the threat of violence.
The Boston Tea Party was the last straw for the British Government in dealing the American Colonies because of how big an act of defiance it was for the Americans to throw all that tea into the water.

To give some background, in 1772 Lord North was able to get parliament to remove all duties besides those on tea to try to foster peace after the Boston Massacre (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 222). Following the repeal, the colonists still smuggled Dutch tea into the colonies. To make it easier to follow the law Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773 which made the tea tax even lower (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 23). That was met with the colonists believing the conspiracy theory that this new legislation was just a way for Parliament to get them used to buying taxed goods. After weeks of tension between the two sides, 100 men in Boston decided to board tea ships, that hadn’t unloaded their cargo due to the tensions, and throw the tea overboard into the harbor (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 24). The King and Parliament were furious after everything they had done to make it easier on the colonists and this is how they repay them. This had to have been the last straw for Parliament. Even John Adams knew this would be meet with punishments when he wrote in his diary “This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences.” (Roark, pg. 155). Indeed, the Boston Tea Party was met with quick and forceful punishment in the passing of the Coercive

Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts by the colonists. The Acts closed the Port of Boston, made the governor of Massachusetts more powerful, made it so that Royal Officials accused of crimes were to be sent back to England to be tried in English and not colonial courts. The acts also allowed British soldiers to be housed where ever they needed, including people’s homes without the approval of the homeowners. Parliament also gave Ohio Valley back to the French, Ohio Valley being the thing they fought over in the Seven Years War with the French. Which was a huge smack in the face after the Americans and helped win that war. These acts were also huge because the British government was now taking away even more of the colonist’s rights and allowing the colonies royal governments to have no checks of their power within the colonies (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 24-25).
Thus, The Stamp Act, Boston Massacre, and Boston Tea Party were all important steps leading up to the war because each step either lead to more rights being taken away or more violence between the two sides. Stamp Act was important because it caused the issue with which most of the other issues leading up to the war spawned from. That issue was the idea of taxation without representation. Additionally, The Boston Massacre was huge because it was the killing of innocent citizens on their own soil. Finally, the Boston Tea Party was important to the British because, after all the things Parliament did to ease up on the colonies, they go and destroy tea. Many Americans believe that it was Britain who was totally wrong and caused the revolutionary war, but as highlighted in this Essay there were mistakes made by both sides in the lead up to the war.