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.
With this idea it justified the taxes that England started to enforce on the colonies. These taxes were known as the Sugar Act, Townshend Act, Stamp Act, Tea Act, Declarative Act, and the Intolerable Act on the colonies. Economically this hurt the colonists in almost every way possible. The colonists decided to radically react to these new taxes. The colonist reacted against the Stamp Act by rioting and destroying stamped paper.
What were the colonists protesting? Their primary grievance was taxation without representation. Various Acts creating laws and taxes were forced upon the colonist by the British government. As new Acts were made or repealed frustrations grew among the colonist leading to the formation of patriotic groups and mumblings of action against the British. Although communication between the King’s representatives and the Crown was slow Britain did react forcefully to the colonist rebellious actions.
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.
Some of which include the Sugar Act of 1764, Stamp Act of 1765, Quartering Act of 1765 and the Intolerable Act of 1774. The Intolerable Act put taxes on imported goods, this causing the greatest decline on British imports. The Colonists began to boycott goods and stand up for their rights. In a letter written by George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, Washington states that asking Britain to reduce taxes was wrong. Washington says that it would be asking for a favor to reduce taxes and than not claiming a right.
After the war, Great Britain was in a large enough debt that it was able to destroy the English government. This affected political and economic relations between the colonies and Great Britain. The British had ideals that set them apart from the English colonies. Despite the two of them working together against the French opposition, the ways the British treated and behaved around the colonists in British North America convinced them that they would be put entirely under the rule of the English crown and one day become enslaved. The British forgot about the role that the American troops had in the war.
In 1773 was the dumping of tea in the Boston Harbor and in June of 1774 the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, were created which frustrated the colonists. The way the English had so much rule over them was one of the main reasons why they wanted to declare independence. The battle at Lexington and Concord was April 19, 1775 with the formation of the Second Continental Congress being in 1775. John Dickinson, the author of the document, was a delegate in both the First and Second Continental Congress. He was an esteemed writer who helped Thomas Jefferson write a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and also wrote Olive Branch Petition, an appeal to King George III to resolve the dispute.
The British imperial policies between 1763 and 1776 intensified colonials’ resistance to British rule and their commitment to republican ideals and popular sovereignty. The reversal of the policy of Salutary Neglect and other policies placed upon them: the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts led to insurrection in the colonies, the sons of liberty and the Stamp Act Congress, the Boston Tea Party, and the First Continental Congress and the Suffolk Resolves. The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed.
Throughout is powerful speech he uses emotional appeals and rhetorical questions to get his ideas across. Henry uses emotional appeal by expressing how much the colonists have been hurt and wronged by the British government. Simply by expressing how much Britain has placed soldiers and naval fleets around the colonies makes there a perception that Britain does not trust the colonies and must guard them like a prison not giving them any rights. Also, by asking rhetorical questions about simple human rights and freedom he puts the listeners into a mindset that they have been wronged. He does not always say exactly what Britain has done but rather mentions their government and then asks a rhetorical question about the man’s freedom.
Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence I think Paine had several important arguments when concerning “Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence because there was a lot of tension that was building up between Great Britain during the 1760s and 1770s. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was beneficial when concerning the push for the Declaration of Independence. There were several issues that led up to the colonist determining on whether or not to declare the independence from Great Britain. There were numerous taxes that were put on the colonies which they thought didn’t make any sense at all. The colonist acted numerous times to protest against the taxes.