The American Revolution was a result of the colonists unrest caused by their abhorrence towards their British Mother Country. For several centuries the colonies had been subject to rule by the English Crown and it’s Parliament. They no longer wanted to be controlled by a country an ocean away, and in turn sought independence. A huge factor in the start of the American Revolution was the French and Indian War that changed the age-old bond between the colonies and England. Decades of conflict followed, starting with the revolt as a result of the Stamp Act in 1765, leading to the eruption of war in 1775.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 marked the beginning of open hostilities between the Colonies and Britain. These battles were the culmination of difficulties between England and the American colonies. The Colonists were fighting against the economic exploitation and political oppression of Parliament. The root cause of the revolution was the fact that Britain refused to believe that the colonies had outgrown, both economically and psychologically, their former status. Many, many things caused the revolution.
Was the American Revolution really “revolutionary” Revolutions start off as rebellions. People seek change in political, economic, social aspects of their governing bodies. The American Revolution was no different. Colonists united because they felt they were not treated fairly and seeked immediate change. The revolution changed the colonies government from monarch to a republic.
The French however were trying to cause a true revolution, a reason to overthrown their king and remove all the inequalities there was. The American Revolution, beginning in 1776, had started with tensions between Britain and its colonist due to the debt that the Britain’s accrued from the war with the French and Indians. Up to this point the colonist had elected their own assemblies and had grown accustomed to running their own affairs. The British began passing legislation, which increased the taxation of American colonies, tightening their control over the colonists. One of the regulations that Parliament passed was the Stamp Act of 1765.
The French and Indian War, or the Seven Years’ war in Europe, had a negative impact on relations between the American colonies and Great Britain. The British forgot about the colonists’ role during the war. British troops in the colonies treated the colonists with cruelty, convincing the colonists that they would possibly be enslaved in the future by Britain. Although the colonists were original from Britain, they had different ideals and philosophies. After the war, Great Britain was in a large enough debt that it was able to destroy the English government.
The American Revolution had a major impact on the military, society and on some aspects of human responsibility. Before the American Revolution took place, the citizens of the colonies were beginning to get tired of the British rule. Rebellion and discontent were widespread. The major reason the colonies started revolting against 'mother England' was the issue of taxation. The colonies debated England's power to tax them and did not wish to be taxed without representation.
During the beginning of colonial settlement, Britain did not enforce strict laws upon the colonies because it wanted them to prosper. Once war broke out between the French and the British in the French and Indian war, Britain began to enforce harsher laws and greater taxes on the colonies to draw revenue for the war. This in turn, angered the colonists and they began to think twice about having another country rule them. The colonists at the time also violated the same ideals of equality of rights and rule of law when they discriminated against the African Americans, Native Americans, and the poorer white settlers by forcing people into slavery with terrible conditions and taking land just because the colonist needed it. When the French and Indian War broke out between the British and the French, Britain hoped to use the colonies as an extra source of wealth to fight the war.
This was a direct cause of the economic crises that faced the French Government. This was partly a result of the country's involvement in the American war of independence. The Nobility was called upon to help ease France's economic crisis, but they declined to help out because they were afraid of losing their economic privileges such as high roles in society, not having to serve the king in war as well as not having to pay taxes. The cost of affording a respectable or even a sustained lifestyle had increased rapidly with the rise in bread prices and basic necessities. On top of which the working class was expected to pay heavy taxes to finance the governments running.
In this essay, I will provide a thorough examination of what revolution promised and what it delivered to these various groups of people. The British North American Revolution was a political upheaval that occurred from 1775 to 1783, in which colonies worked together to break ties with the British. The British Empire took advantage of the colonies by imposing harsh taxes known as the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts and adopting the policy that colonies should contribute more to the territories rather than expanding its powers into western Indian Territory. These newly imposed policies, in correlation with a lack of colonial input in Parliamentary actions, resulted in the increase in tension between Imperial Britain and Colonial America. Colonist believed their rights were being violated and revolt started to become more and more of a certainty.
Since the colonies were part of the British empire, you can classify it as a civil war because part of a nation was succeeding from the empire. The colonists were in support of a different governmental structure. In the Declaration of Independence, it says That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government. The colonists believed that the British government was destructive towards the colonies because it was implementing taxes the colonists believed to be unnecessary with out colonial representation in parliament. Since the colonies were a part of the British empire they believed it was necessary for them to have direct representation in parliament.