What caused the American Revolution? Patrick Henry, an American attorney and politician, stated in a speech in 1775 his most famous words, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” This quote captures the essence of the American Revolution, a war fought by the American colonists to gain their freedom and independence from the British Crown. It was through this war that the colonists obtained their political independence from Great Britain and formed a new nation, The United States. The war was influenced by both political and economic factors. The Stamp Act, The Intolerable Acts, The Boston Massacre and the other acts passed by Parliament caused the American Revolution. One of the factors that caused the American Revolution was the Stamp Act. …show more content…
This event had a major influence on the colonists. In 1768, Parliament sent a several hundred British troops to Boston due to the colonists’ refusal to buy imported goods from England. Their purpose was to protect tax collectors and other officials. The colonists resented the troops. On March 5, 1770, a group of colonists started throwing snowballs at the British soldiers and insulted them. Eventually, the situation escalated and the British soldiers shot into the crowd killing 5 men. Paul Revere, one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, engraved a picture of the event. The news of this incident was spread throughout labeled as “The Boston Massacre” (Doc 4). This increased the anti-British sentiment in the colonies and further the push for …show more content…
These acts create a large amount of opposition towards Parliament because negative consequences on Massachusetts. It was a response to the Boston Party in which a group of colonists dumped 300 cases of tea overboard When Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts; it closed the port of Boston, preventing all shipping until they paid the lost teas and taxes and banned town meetings throughout Massachusetts. It also forced colonists to provide housing and provisions for British troops. The other colonies reacted by sympathizing with Boston and supporting the city. They called for the meeting of a Continental Congress in which they discussed how they should respond to the actions by Parliament. They viewed these acts passed by Parliament as a violation of their rights. This can be supported by the resolutions passed by the First Continental Congress. From the excerpts of the resolution states that, “…the following acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of them is… necessary in order to restore harmony…” (Doc. 5) These were the feelings and sentiments during this time
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Show MoreThere are a lot of turning point that led to the revolutionary war. Every act that the king signed and put intoto effect plus the actions of the red coats fueled the colonies motivation to start a revolution . The four major reasons were the stamp act, Tea act ,common sense by Thomas paine, declaration of independence The stamp act 1765 was the first direct tax put on the British colonies in North America (DOC.A). The colonies were not fond of the stamp act they had no say in what the tax should be on nor what it should be spent on.
On March 5, 1770 a street fight occurred between a mob of Boston citizens and British soldiers. The soldiers were increasingly unwelcome in Boston so the citizens threw snowballs, stones, and sticks at the group of soldiers who had been stationed here- the soldiers retaliated. The citizens were very outnumbered and the fight resulted in five deaths and six injuries from Boston. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty named this event the Boston Massacre. The morning after, John Adams was sitting in his law office when Paul Revere revealed an engraving that showed Thomas Preston (captain of the British soldiers) ordering troops to fire at point blank range on the citizens.
On the twentieth day, December 16, a crowd gathered to talk about what will happen, but nothing came of it until “…100 to 150 men disguised as Mohawk Indians… boarded the ships and dumped over 90,000 pounds of tea…”(148) an event that is now known as the Boston Tea Party. This caused Lord North and Parliament to issue the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts. They were a series of laws and regulations for the colonies which angered the colonists. This issue lead to the First Continental Congress, which had notables figures from different colonies to discuss the crisis. “Many colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia realize that the problems of British rule went far beyond questions of nonconsensual taxations.
Revolutionary War One cause of the Revolutionary War was the Boston Massacre. The four graves and nickname “Horrid Massacre” shows that the colonists were angry and enraged at the British troops for killing innocent people (Document 3). The colonists believed that British troops should have not fired because they were unarmed and just throwing snowballs, however, from the soldier 's ' point of view, they believed that the colonists are guilty because they were throwing clubs, ice and other sharp things. Also, the colonists were telling the soldiers to fire at them thus confusing them into thinking that their commander was saying “fire”. The angry colonists sought revenge and independence against the British.
The cause which most likely sparked and was largely responsible for the start of the American Revolution was the Quartering Act. It was a series of laws passed that were meant to punish the British tea party. One reason this act angered them the most was that it forced every colonist to be willing to give up their homes to the British soldiers. By law, you had to provide room and board for the said soldiers- no matter where it was. Another reason that the colonist would be most angered by this series of laws is that it created divinity and privilege between the soldiers and the colonists, as they were being forced to provide for them.
The Boston Tea Party disrupted this period of calm. In December 1773, a group of patriots took over three ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The harsh Tea Act imposed by the British caused this action. Two years later, the British began their march to Lexington and Concord to arrest patriot leaders and seize their weapons.
DBQ Essay The American Revolution was a rebellion from citizens in Britain that was inspired from many events, including the creation of the United States of America. A revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government to acquire a new system. The American Revolution was sparked from a variety of occurrences ranging from speeches to letters to documents, therefore causing the revolution to become the most significant yet. There were many influential people/concepts that added ignition to the revolution, including Abigail Adams, Leon F. Litwack, and the article from Northwest Ordinance.
This was alarming to the colonist because they familiar with the “no taxation without representation”. This Act resulted in a strong unified violent response from the colonists. The colonist issue was not with the tax itself, it was the fact that parliament was trying to tax them with no elected representatives in Parliament.
The British instantly inflicted the Intolerable Acts on the people of Massachusetts as a punishment for rebelling against them. The response to this was one of the biggest displays of colonial unity, all of the colonies worked together in order to help send food and supplies to the people of Massachusetts who were impacted by these ‘intolerable’ laws (Document G). In 1774, fifty five delegates of from the First Continental Congress came together in order to create the Declaration of Rights and the Association which was a document that closely resembled a constitution and stated that there should be a complete boycott of British goods. The colonists, showing a huge amount of unity, came together
The American Revolution occurred between 1765 and 1783. Colonists in the thirteen american colonies had disagreements with the british monarchy and aristocracy. The American Revolution War was also known as the U.S. War of Independence. During these years Americans went through a series of battles and new laws and rules were set. During the American Revolution there were a lot of long term and short term causes, including economic factors, english political legacy, and foreign policy.
The American Revolution was a war fought by American colonies to gain independence from the British control. The American Revolution was caused by a series of events. It all started with the French and Indian War in 1754. At the end of the war, King George III issued the proclamation of 1763 which prohibited colonists to settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains, many colonists took great offense at this order. The war between Britain and France caused Britain to be deeply in debt and demanded tax from the colonies.
After the crowd cleared up only five Colonists laid dead. Paul Revere’s engraving “The Boston Massacre” functions as a piece of propaganda because it makes people want to fight for a cause and helps promote war. In Paul Revere’s engraving the image shows the Captain of the British soldiers behind them with his sword up giving orders. However, in Captain Prescott’s Testimony, he explains that he wasn’t behind the soldiers nor was he giving orders. “went myself to prevent, if possible,
The colonists tried to tell the British that they did not like the law and they didn’t listen so the colonists tipped lots of the British tea into the harbor to show they really don’t like the law. The Intolerable Acts began when the British hoped to force the colonists for the tea lost in the harbor and to obey British rule. The Coercive Acts closed the port of Boston and imposed military rule on all of Massachusetts. The colonists could not tolerate the acts. On the day the acts went into effect, flags throughout the colonies were flown
What Caused the American Revolution The American Revolution was a battle for leadership in the American colonies. At the time, England controlled nearly all aspects, mostly the political and economic, of the colonial lives. Their purpose was to strengthen England. The colonies wanted the freedom from all of the control because they were doing fine without England.
Political, economic, military, and social factors were taken into account during the revolution. These aspects of the war all played a significant role in the outcome of the American Revolution. Since Great Britain was in a tremendous amount of debt, it started social and economic issues with the colonies. The French and Indian War (Seven Years War), fought between the British and the French over the Ohio River Valley was a huge contributing factor to said debt.