Was The American Revolution Inevitable

1285 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: State and criticize Locke's social contract theory

The American Revolution was inevitable. The French and Indian War had much to do with this, impacting the colonies in a such a way that they were destined to rebel. This war lead to certain actions by Britain that greatly upset the colonists. First, Britain upset the colonists through modes like taxation, which caused the colonies to work together and realize they could survive as an independent nation. This was by far the largest contributing factor. Second, the colonists used Locke’s social contract theory as support for their rebellion. Locke’s theory also supports the colonists’ views on taxation. Third, the British and the colonies had opposing views as to the nature of their relationship. The French and Indian War was fought …show more content…

The colonists had to buy a stamp to put on paper documents. This tax was strictly to raise revenue from the colonies, which angered them because they did not want to pay for the French and Indian War through taxes in which they had no input (“The Seven…”). Some of the colonists met to write a document to send to Parliament to protest the Stamp Act. According to The Stamp Act Congress, Britain had no right to tax the colonies because they were not represented in Parliament. They could not be represented because there was an ocean separating the two parts of the empire. Therefore, the colonists asked for Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act (“The Declaration…”).
The Townshend Act was a tax on glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea. British Chancellor Charles Townshend crafted the act, believing that the colonies would be a good opportunity to raise money for the British government and help reduce land taxes in Britain. The Townshend Act was disguised as a regulatory tax so that the colonists would not resist paying it. However, colonists such as Benjamin Franklin, in examining the tax, figured out that it was actually a revenue tax. The colonists resisted this tax until it was eventually repealed (“The …show more content…

There were four parts to it: The Boston Port Act, The Massachusetts Government Act, The Administration of Justice Act, The Quartering Act, and The Quebec Act. The Boston Port Act closed the Boston port until the colonists paid for the damage done during the Boston Tea Party. This punished everyone in Massachusetts, regardless of their contribution to the damage. The Massachusetts Government Act controlled who the government officials in the colonies were by making them appointed, rather than popularly elected, officials. This was in order to prevent the government officials from disobeying orders from Britain. The Administration of Justice Act allowed the British government to control the court trials of British officials taking place in the colonies. This act led to even worse behavior by the British officials, as they did not fear going to trial over their misdeeds. The Quartering Act ordered colonists to let British soldiers stay in their houses and other buildings they owned, in effect controlling individual landowners’ property rights. The final act, the Quebec Act, was an attempt to give Britain more control over the region by pacifying the catholic French population. These acts were known to the colonists as the Intolerable Acts for a reason. They did not like how the British were trying to control the colonies, especially after such a long time

Show More
Related

  • What Provoked the British Colonists in the Americas to Rebel against the Crown

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...he Intolerable Act there were two things that fell under this. The first one being, Massachusetts Government Act; the king choose the delegates that where in the upper house. Upsetting the colonists for they were able to vote for the delegates but now they weren’t being represented properly. The second one is the Administration of Justice Act which protected British officers from colonial courts. This was seen as unjust for that allowed the officers to get away with crimes that would have major or even minor punishment.

    Read More

  • Dbq Essay

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • How Did The Townshend Act Contribute To American Revolution

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the British passed the Stamp Act, the colonists reacted in various ways. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, put taxes on all printed goods in the colonies. Specifically, newspapers, legal documents, dice,

    Read More

  • The British and the American Colonists: Tension Prior to Revolutionary War

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    .... The Coercive Acts were mostly to punish Boston and Massachusetts, but one also expanded the Quartering Act. Parliament also passed the Quebec Act, which arranged the land in Canada. Colonists took this as an attack on them as they lost land on the Ohio River, and it heightened the fear of losing their representative assemblies. The tensions, ultimately, would lead to the revolutionary war.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The American Revolution

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was not all as good for the Colonies as it seemed, however, for with that came the Declarative Act. The Declarative Act states that, “That the King 's Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons of Great Britain, in parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever” (Temperley). This nullified any progress the House of Burgesses had accomplished. There was still hope however for the King George III appointed a new minister. He made a name for him self in the Colonies in the French and Indian War. He was sympathetic to the Colonies and was a supporter in repealing the Stamp Act. His name was William Pitt. Unfortunately for the Colonists, he fell ill shortly after taking office and passed and was replaced by Townshend. Townshend had quite the opposite views as Pitt. He supported generating yet even more revenue from the Colonies. He adds taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass, and tea. He also set out to quell the power of the upstart American assemblies. He used the New York legislature to set a bold example. The New York legislature was not recognizing the Quartering Act. Townshend suspended the Assembly until they submitted and agreed to recognize and follow the act. Such

    Read More

  • The Colonists: Was The American Revolution Justified?

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Instead they passed new acts which were worse than the ones passed before. As a result of the Tea Act, all the taxes except the tax on tea was repealed in order to keep Parliament’s right to tax the colonies, and the colonists did not like this act. As a result of their anger towards the British, the Boston Tea Party occurred: Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston Harbor and empty 342 chests of tea to the Boston. Still, the British kept on trying to control the Americans, but this time, they passed 4 acts, the Intolerable Acts, in order to punish and control people; The Boston Harbor would be closed, the people of Boston would have a curfew, Massachusetts would lose its self-government/town meetings, royal officers would be allowed to be tried in Britain, and the British troops would use empty buildings. Instead of giving Americans the freedom they wanted, the British punished them. Yet, this did not stop Americans. Instead, they were even angrier to the British for the strict rules the British was passing in order to control the colonists. They knew they had to do something, which resulted in continental congresses, the Articles of Confederation, and the American Revolution. The British was not going to stop trying to hold power over the colonies, and as Patrick Henry started off by saying “Caesar had his Brutus — Charles the first, his Cromwell — and George the third — ” and finished “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it”(Wolverton, Joe, II). This was no longer of a fight against the British, but a fight to be

    Read More

  • The Causes of the American Revolution

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are four major reasons that the rebellion of the colonists accumulated into a full scale revolution. The most indistinct of these four reasons is the old societal legacies of the colonies, namely: social, political, religious, and economic values. These deeply rooted values were ingrained and inherited from the generations of colonists, and once the British began upsetting those values, resentment set in and began to undermine the British authority. For example, many of those who came to America were of British decent; they loved being English and fancied that, as colonists, they were taking part in the building of a bigger and stronger British Empire. But to those in England, the Americans were no better than barbarians. The English did not view A...

    Read More

  • The Boston Tea Party

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    The war had been enormously expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in chaos. English leaders, were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war. In a desperate attempt to gain control over the colonies as well as the additional revenue to pay off the war debt, Britain began to force taxes on the colonies. Which resulted in The Stamp Act, passed by parliament and signed by the king in March 1765. The Stamp Act created an excise tax on legal documents, custom papers, newspapers, almanacs, college diplomas, playing cards, and even dice. Obviously the colonist resented the Stamp Act and the assumption that parliament could tax them whenever and however they could without their direct representation in parliament. Most colonials believed that taxation without their consent was a violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen. Which is where the slogan “No Taxation without Representation” comes

    Read More

  • American Revolution Dbq

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    So the colonist went a little overboard and through all the tea on the British ships overboard. The British Parliament then decided to pass the Intolerable Acts, which were a series of laws passed to punish the colonist for the Boston Tea Party. The Intolerable Acts were the port of Boston was closed until the colonists paid for the destroyed tea. The royal governor could have decided to ban town meetings, British officials accused of crimes would stand trial in Britain instead of in Massachusetts. The last act was the Quartering Act which allowed the British troops to live in unoccupied colonial buildings and homes. These acts were enacted to restore authority in its colonies. The colonist were the most angry about the Quartering Act because they felt that there was no reason for a soldier to be stationed in the colonies after the war

    Read More

  • Charles Townshend Dbq

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    Assumed that violators were strained in juryless admiralty courts, there was a great probability of conviction. Townshend also pushed the Americans to the bound by interrupting the New York legislature for dying to offer adequate provisions for the British troops located there. Reactions in the colonies remained violent, identical to those for the period of the Stamp Act Crisis. Once more nonimportation was applied extralegal activities such as troublesome tax collectors and traders who disrupted the boycotts were frequent and the colonial congresses jumped into action. The colonists weren’t in contradiction of the law however they were intensely opposed to taxes enforced by the British parliament, discontented with the bellow of "No Taxation without demonstration" As the colonists celebrated their political victory, the British parliament voted for the Declaratory Act which provided the British with an expansive command to execute laws, and taxes, on the American colonies. In a period of a year of the passing of the Declaratory Act, innovative trade rules were obligatory on America. The new taxes, were introduced by the Townshend Acts of

    Read More

  • How Did The British React To The Stamp Act

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1756 the British Parliament imposed a tax, called the Stamp Tax on the British colonies. This tax required all the citizens of the 13 colonies to pay a small amount on all their paper and paper items. The tax was introduced because the British were in heavy debt from the French and Indian war which lasted from 1754-1763. The British saw this as an efficient way to pay back their debts and had no intention for troubling the colonists. When the Stamp Act was enacted the colonists were outraged and reacted in a very poor manor. When the stamp act was passed, the colonists reaction was very different from what the British had originally thought. The colonists were truly mad, which led them to take harsh actions. The colonists; not putting up with the new tax, had to change their lifestyle quite a bit and learn how to adapt to the new circumstance.

    Read More

  • Boston Tea Party

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Townshend Acts were a series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right of colonial authority through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict collection provisions of additional revenue duties. The British-American colonists named the acts after Charles Townshend, who sponsored them. “The Suspending Act prohibited the New York Assembly from conducting any further business until it complied with the financial requirements of the Quartering Act (1765) for the expenses of British troops stationed there” (Britannica p.1). The second act, often called the Townshend duties, and imposed direct revenue duties payable at colonial ports, on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea. It was the second time in the history of the colonies that a tax had been levied solely f...

    Read More

  • The Causes of the American Revolution

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    The connection between Britain and the English colonies was that of the ruling of the colonies by the king of Britain, King George III and his parliament. The king’s ruling was very unfavorable for the colonists because of his tyrannic dictatorship and unjustly taxations. The mere thought of an island ruling an entire continent thousands of miles away with poor communication and lack of supervision of the colonies by the king, did not work in favor of the colonies nor for Britain. Three contributing factors for the outbreak of the American Revolution were (1) the king’s taxes, (2) neglect of the 13 colonies and (3) England’s mercantilism policy. King George III and his decisions were one of the major causes that had the English colonists fumed with anger towards Britain and this eventually led to the American Revolution.

    Read More

  • The Causes of the American Revolution

    493 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Enlightenment to Independence: Causes of the American Revolution

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Boston Harbor was closed by these Acts and would not be reopened until all the tea that was lost was paid off. It also Curtailed town meetings in Massachusetts and stopped elections of council members. The Parliament strengthened the Quartering Act, allowing military soldiers to lodge soldiers in the homes of the colonists. The Intolerable Acts united the colonies against the Acts that threatened the colonist’s political freedom. “That we scorn the chains of slavery; we despise every attempt to rivet them upon us (Farmington, Connecticut, Resolutions on the Intolerable Acts, 94),” describes how the American colonists saw the Intolerable Acts as a form of repression, making them equivalent to the level of

    Read More

More about Was The American Revolution Inevitable

Open Document