What Are The Long Term Causes Of The American Revolution

602 Words3 Pages
The origins of the American Revolution can be considered as both the long-term trends and short-term triggers. The long-term trends were inequity between British and colonies, and the desire of liberty. The British felt that the colonies’ main role was to enrich the mother country so that London government made the colonies share the huge debts of the empire from seven years’ war. And nearly all the Britons believed that they had right to legislate for it (180). However, at the other side, colonies were angry at the British for taxing them without giving them a representative in the British government. They felt that they were only used for resources, but not considered equals. Eventually, the unfair treatments made colonies realized membership in the empire was not an advantage any more. On the other hand, the idea of freedom had been internalized into Americans. Many of the revolutionary leaders such as Thomas Jefferson were influenced by the writing of John Locke who raised the state of nature. They believed British jeopardized their liberty and the nature rights. Therefore, in Declaration of Independence, it not only expounded King’s “absolute tyranny”, but also put emphasis on “unalienable rights” which meant no government could take away the…show more content…
It changed the political thought of the eighteen century; “democracy” was stated as the aspirations for greater equality inspired by the struggle for independence (214). The ideas are from the concepts of Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," and that government derives its power from the "consent of the governed. On the other hand, the Revolution also had a great impact on individual’s right to political participation such as largely expended the right to vote and the number of legislative
Open Document