The colonies had a radical reaction towards England after England taxed, used military action against the colonies, and the American colonies wanted their own government. After the French and Indian War, England ended up in major debt. England decided to tax the colonies to help pay for the debt that they accumulated. England believed in mercantilism, which is the idea that the colonies exist to benefit the mother country. With this idea it justified the taxes that England started to enforce on the colonies.
There was some friction in the economic relationship between Britain and its American colonies. After the war, the British were left in a large debt. This caused them to strictly regulate trade and put taxes on commonly used goods, like playing cards and paper for the Stamp Act, as well as sugar importations for the Sugar Act. The colonists protested against these acts, leading them to begin a non-importation movement in which they would stop buying goods from Britain. The British were pressured into
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. As the area for war expanded from India to North America, the cost of the war increased dramatically. This lead Britain to impose new forms of taxes such as the stamp act which put a tax on legal documents and the sugar act which put a tax on sugar (which at the time was a commonly used product used in the colonies), and new regulations like the navigation acts, to prevent the colonies from trading with foreign nations. The colonies did not agree with Britain’s imposition of the new laws as they were not fighting the war. The colonists believed that they should have separate laws from Britain because they are not directly represented in parliament.
British Pigs in Powdered Wigs The disorganized and disconnected British rule on the thirteen American colonies created situations that led to the Revolutionary War. Through unwarranted taxes, unwanted wars, and an overall mismanagement of the colonies lead the colonies to view Britain as an incompetent government. These complicated times brought thoughts of a revolution which was critically evaluated by leaders in the colonies. Leading up to the revolution men voiced their opinion through writings and speeches similar to Patrick Henry, John Adams, and Samuel Seabury. Small disagreements between the English Empire and the colonies continuously went unresolved until thoughts of rebellion started to become a serious topic in the colonies.
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.
After the British conquering the Seven Years war, America was seized by Great Britain. Being forced to pay taxes and pay off the expenses was just a normal was of life from now on for the Americans. A major action that took place in Britain was the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was mainly that all documents had to be tattooed with a marking indicating that the tax on the document was paid off. Americans were fuming when the British allowed the East Indian Tea Company to send the merchandise directly to the colonies.
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 search for independence was a result of political, social, and economic factors such as the use of America as merely a subject land, made for the purpose of English wealth, the overall lack of representation the colonists had in government, and the emerging liberal and republican ideas as a result of the Enlightenment. Tension between England and the colonists stirred a hunger for liberty and a desire for freedom and was brought about by radical reforms, military battles, and the forming of a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution. The political aspect of the American Revolution was a result of Britain’s suddenly tightened control over the governing of the colonies. When they won the French and Indian War, England had to make a few reforms.
The Revolutionary War: Why was it fought and was it preventable? Many believe that the trouble started brewing in 1763 at the end of the French Indian War but in all truth the colonist first started feeling discontent with the passing of the Navigation laws in 1650. This law stated that all goods flowing to and from the colonies could only be transported in British vessels. It was aimed to hurt rival Dutch shippers. This law kept money in the empire but hurt the pockets of the wealthy colonists mercantilist that depended on the shipping trade.
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.
It could be argued that there are multiple factors that could be argued to be the primary cause of the American Revolution. These factors include social, economic, and political causes, all of which branch out into far more intricate categories. However, a major precursor of the revolution was the tyrannical control with which Britain treated the Americans as an inferior people, mainly through absurd taxes. The colonists began to see the economic restraints that Britain’s laws placed on their lives. Americans grew to believe that the many taxes were levied for the enhancement of British capital at the expense of American welfare.