Causes Of The American Revolution

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Seldom can it be said that complex historical events have simple causes. This is certainly true with the American Revolution. However an exploration of the events prior to the Revolution reveal that the Stamp Act of 1765, Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party were the most important causes of the revolution. The Stamp Act of 1765 was a law that was put on legal documents such as newspapers, pamphlets, court documents, licenses, wills and ships cargo lists and it required an affixed at stamp as proof that tax has been paid. The stamp act was plainly ad simply to raise money, the act extended to the colonies the system of stamp duties then employed in Great Britain and was intended to raise money to lower the cost of maintaining the military defenses of the colonies. This act nearly affected nearly everyone who used any taxed paper, nut mostly on those who relied on official documents. Completely unexpected was the massive amount of protest from the colonists, who nullified the Stamp Act but refusing to use the stamps and by riots. Prime Minister George Grenville said that this direct tax was intended for the colonies to pay for defense. Colonists upheld their rights as Englishmen to taxed only by their own consent through their own representative assemblies. In addition to nonimportation agreements among colonial merchants, the Stamp Act Congress was convened in New York (1765) by representatives of nine colonies to the resolution of "rights and grievances". Passed without debate, it aroused widespread opposition among the colonists, who argued that because they were not represented in Parliament, they could not legally be taxed without their consent. In reality the Boston Massacre was no massacre at all. The riot took place on March 5, 1770. A Boston mob and a group of British soldiers were part of it, tough the soldiers were provoked by being harassed with
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