Mercantilism was first created to make the mother country obtain more power. Mother country had gained its power by getting raw materials from colonies, made manufactured goods and sold them back to colonies. When British bought goods, it had to be shipped in British ships simulating British ship building industry and nay. Another factor is that mercantilism made a favorable balance of trade for mother country, which indicated that there had to be more exports than imports. British wanting to establish mercantilism policy, they made Navigation acts.
However, the many taxes passed by the British Parliament hindered their progress, upsetting the colonists. One of the first significant taxes was the Sugar Act of 1763, enacted by the british parliament, which added a tax to sugar bought by the colonists. This tax enraged the colonists because they enjoyed the use of sugar and they didn’t want to have to pay more for it. The colonists, in response, began to smuggle sugar and other goods. The british, in response to the smuggling, set up a court without a jury present and the presumption was that the colonists were guilty.
They were not intended to help the smaller colonies. In fact, they were controlling the colonies and their potential to grow; this was the objective. With these Acts in effect, all of the trade in and out of Britain could be conducted on only British ships. This allowed Britain to tax the products and decide what was to be sold (i.e. the goods with profit Britain saw too great to allow them to be sold other places).
The act of knocking down King George III statue represented a great political change between England and America (Doc. A). The political system formed by the American revolution also greatly differed from Europe. That was because the sense of the American government is that because all men are created equal and the government got their power from the people (Doc B). The American Revolution was revolutionary by bringing change in economy.
Rough Copy In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began, as the American Colonies wanted to achieve independence from the British Monarchy. Even though many reasons were sighted out for the revolution, one in particular sticks out. King George III outlawed the interest free independent currency the thirteen colonies were producing and using themselves. This in turn forced the colonies to borrow money from the Central Bank of England, which put the colonies into immediate debt. The Federal Reserve Bank was alleged to be a step towards the “One World Government”, simply by manipulating the international monetary system and the media in order to create a monopoly.
Prior to the conflicts of the 18th century, the British form of government served as a model for those seeking a successful political system, and was admired for its equal distribution of power. However, during the years leading up to Revolution, political dissatisfaction initiated by Enlightenment ideas grew considerably. The Enlightenment was a period of philosophical free thinking and self betterment that inspired many revolutionists in colonial America. For instance, Enlightenment thinker John Locke’s argued that “political authority did not derive from the divine right of kings or the inherited authority of aristocracies but from the consent of the governed,” (Brinkley Alan pg 142). Jean Jacques Rousseau concluded that all people were entitled to participate in their government, as well as possessing liberties to political and legal equality (Brinkley Alan pg 142).
The English Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764, which taxed imported sugar, lumber, dye, coffee and wine, making merchants raise their prices on these goods. The colonists understood this process and knew that it helped in regulating commerce. What they didn’t appreciate was the March, 1965 Stamp Act, an Act that made colonists pay for any stamp on a printed document, and in the beginning, almost anything made of paper, even playing cards. The colonists were not pleased with this Act and viewed it as a way to raise money for Britain. The Sons of Liberty, a group formed to protect the rights of colonists, led protests and rallied against the new Act, sometimes with violence and destruction.
The Townshend Acts were similar to the Stamp Act but they taxed different items, and they were put in place after the tax was repealed. Another important difference that the colonists overlooked was that these taxes were a customs duty that could be paid at American ports. All of these parliamentary laws caused uproars in the colonies. They believed that they were not fair because of the no representation of colonists at parliament meetings. The British, to colonial dismay, told them that they were represented because they had Virtual Representation because all parliament members represent all British citizens.
Causes of the Revolutionary The cause of the revolutionary war was not one but many causes. The main cause which seems to be fact was the the colonists and Britain’s views on laws that Parliament had enforced upon the colonies such as new taxes. The colonists believed they should not be taxed with out representation because they wanted to voice their opinion about laws Parliament creates. Britain believed the colonies were created to be used to benefit Britain. When the French and Indian War ended the British felt they had the right to settle former French land even though Indians inhabited most of it.
Each cause brought about an effect by the other. Individuals and groups changed the course of history. The triggers of the American Revolution were primarily economic in nature in that while the British gave allowed more freedom to its colonies that the rest of the European colonial powers, they still enacted laws that favored the business fraternity in Great Britain: a situation that did not augur very well with the members of the thirteen British colonies of North America. Thus, the discontent with disparate treatment of the thirteen colonies by the Great Britain yielded to the quest for independence, which was born out of the protracted fight for independence in what is called the American Revolution. References Kelly, M. (2011).