American Revolution: The Inevitable Uprising

An Inevitable Revolution

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a revolution is a “usually violent attempt by many people to end the rule of one government and start a new one.” The American Revolution resulted in “independence for thirteen of the British colonies in North America” (Foner and Garraty, 1991a). Acts such as the sugar act, the stamp act, and the tea act passed by British Parliament resulted in the “political, economic, cultural, and geographical” cataclysm that came to be known as the American Revolution because it angered the colonists, thus, resulting in rebellion and a need to separate the two governments (Yanak and Cornelison, 1993a).

The Sugar Act was passed in 1764 after the French and Indian war. The taxes brought about by the Sugar Act were different than the previous colonial taxes because they were not put in place to support the British economy but to replenish Parliament’s empty treasury. According to Revolution, an article written by Eric Foner and John Garraty, the act was intended “to prevent trade with the French West Indies” because Parliament “passed a prohibitive tariff on sugar, molasses, and other

These acts were passed because Britain used an extraordinary amount of funds in the Seven – Years War. Although Britain conquered North America, the funds used during the war left Britain with very little money. British Parliament faced opposition through mass protest and violent outbreaks because their blatant disregard for the colonists’ liberties and opinion through the passing of these acts. The overall issue that sparked rebellion was that taxes were forced on people who had no representation in the British Parliament; thus the people felt as if they had no voice. Therefore the American Revolution occurred as a result of the colonists’ discontent with the decisions of the British