The colonists accepted British authority for many decades, however in the mid to late 1700’s the colonists had a blossoming divergent identity and felt the British were infringing on it. This began with the Molasses Act and continued to build through the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and then finally the Intolerable Acts. For many decades, the colonists were effectively autonomous, remaining under the British rule but behaving mostly independently. However, after the Seven Years War, Britain began to overreach by imposing revenue taxes on things like tea. The colonists were angry, and their outrage ultimately fueled the colonies to unite against a common enemy: Britain. The colonists argued that their freedom
Britain's inability to establish authority over her colonies after the 7 Years War led the colonist to feel they were independent from British rule. When British government tried to reinstate British laws over the colonies, many citizens felt that it wasn’t fair. Many small events sparked multiple major causes that led America to want separate from Great Britain. Among those causes were protection of religious freedom, the taxes that resulted because of the French and Indian War, and Salutary Neglect. These causes led the Americans to victory after they entered the war because they understood the consequences if they didn’t win. The colonist were not afraid to fight for what they believed was right and showed true love for their country.
Parliament began to take the colonists basic rights from them, so their will to fight to regain their right developed. Parliament believed that taxes would tighten Britain’s control over the American colonies. In reality, if Parliament had the right to tax the colonists, then the colonists should be asking a favor for them to stop taxing them, and not claiming a right (document 3). When Parliament began to tax the colonists, this sparked small protests. Eventually, the colonists had enough and began to protest with violence. The colonists continued to protest the Townshend acts, so the governor asked Great Britain to send soldiers to the colonies. Great Britain had sent soldiers to the colonies to tighten their control on them. One of the violent protests was the Boston Massacre. In this event, an officer, gathering a group, struck a colonist. This group provoked the officers, leading to the death of five colonists. Colonists called the shootings the Boston Massacre (document 3 and 4). Although the colonists were calmed down after the trial, many were still angry. Parliament decided to repeal almost all of the Townshend Acts except the tax on tea. To stop tea smuggling, Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists. Parliament continued to pass acts because they wanted to show that they possessed control over the American
Throughout the 1700’s, the thirteen colonies faced a great deal of injustice that led them to fight for their independence from the British. Before the war, the British parliament had begun taxing the colonists in order to pay off their own personal war debt. The Stamp Act, Townshend Act, and Tea Act were all taxes imposed on the colonists. Despite of their social class, gender or race, all the colonists came together to protests and rebel against the unfair taxes. Eventually, this combined resistance led to the shared motivation of colonists to separate from the British and become independent. The American Revolutionary War began in 1775, and resulted in the thirteen colonies declaring their independence from the British. They formed their
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe were the first five presidents of the United States and the people who led America to success during a time of great conflict. These presidents helped shape America into what it is today. Without their problems during their presidencies and then solving them, no one knows where America would be. For example, why did President Madison go to war, in 1812, unlike all of the previous and future presidents.
In the late nineteenth century, farmers faced problems that they saw as threats to the lifestyle they lived. Monopolies, trusts, railroads, money shortages and distribution of silver were the reasons why these agrarian people were discontent, and they had the right to complain about any of these things. Although some may say that the complaints made by these agrarians are not valid, farmers did indeed have their fair share of problems. As a result of these problems, the Populist Party which was made up of farmers arose because of reasons that the farmers thought caused agricultural decline, giving valid reasons to be discontent and not happy with the unfairness they had to go through in an unprotected world market.
This resulted in larger taxes on the colonists, as well as laws to force them to pay the new taxes. One of the first laws was the Currency Act of 1764 to make sure colonists would not pay in paper money, as it was not actual currency to them. The Sugar Act renewed an old law that states that sugar and rum from anyone except Britain would have a tax. The difference between the old law and the new one was that the new one was reinforced, and the tax on the sugar was lower. This tax was fueled by the Sugar Interest. While this did make some colonists angry, such as James Otis, several were willing to pay it. What made many of the colonists furious was the Stamp Act, which was an internal tax on stamps, something that was placed on nearly every piece of paper they had. This was considered to be unconstitutional. When colonists stopped buying goods from Britain in protest, they passed the Declaratory Act, saying Parliament had supreme control over the colonies, along with the Townshend/ Revenue Acts. Afterwards, they passed the Tea Act to lower tea prices. In response, a group of smugglers boarded a British shipped fill with tea in Boston and dumped it into the harbor to show that they were mad that their smuggled-in French tea could not be sold for as much, called the Boston Tea Party. To punish Boston, the British closed its harbor until the cost of the dumped tea was paid
The American Revolution, a late 18th century colonial revolt, was the center of European interest that spurred opposition and affected the supremacy and relations between dominant nations of the time. In 1763, the close of the Seven Years War was at hand with defeat of the world power, France, by the prevailing British forces. Although British territorial accomplishment was evident, financial blunders were inevitable after obtaining great war debt and the struggle to maintain a newly amassed empire. Extreme budgetary conditions soon led to the institution of taxes that ignited American animosity. Americans soon adopted European ideals of the Enlightenment that inspired them to rebel and refuse to be controlled. France supported Americans wanting
The French and Indian war that lasted from 1754-1763 proved to be a very expensive war. By the time of the French surrender and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 Britain was in considerable debt and began to compensate by increasing tax regimens on the colonies in America. The occurrence of the new levying of taxes created great distress between the colonies and Britain's already rocky relationship. The British began to become more and more involved and controlling of all the colonies affairs, and it ended salutary neglect of its colonies. Due to this new asserted control and later agitations, the colonists were ultimately driven away from reconciliation and towards rebellion and assertion of their independence
Common Sense was written by Thomas Paine and was the first declaration of independence. These writings attacked monarchial government and family ruling, “…but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest…is worth enquiring into…” (Paine, 96) While only the political elite understood most political writings, Paine’s style was meant for the public eye, making it very popular amongst colonists. Common Sense also discussed the struggle of England and America with facts. While America flourished with the help of the British Empire, “…America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her…” (Paine,
The American Revolution was fought by the thirteen British colonies in America in 1775 through 1783. The thirteen colonies fought to become independent from Great Britain and the result was the birth of our nation the United States of America. After the French and Indian War the British Parliament try to find a way to restore its treasury to how it was before the war. The Parliament decided that the colonies should take part of the responsibility in paying war debts. Parliament decided to enact a series of tax measures throughout the next ten years which angered the colonies. The colonists felt that since they have no representation in Parliament there was no reason for them to pay taxes to Great Britain. “Parliament attempted to control colonial
In dire need of paying off war debt, the British Parliament decided to tax the colonists due to the debt being their fault. Along with taxing the colonists, the East India Company boosted the income for the Parliament and benefited the George III by hurting the colonists economically by enacting the tea act. Blending “lethal politics, personalities, and economics”3 the American Revolution was bound to happen between the colonists and British, having little supporters of the idea of war. With the tension build up between the colonists and British Parliament, the Boston Tea Party occurred with the colonists rebelling against the Parliament’s political decision towards the colonists, symbolizing the starting point for a revolution and a step
During the years 1763 to 1783, the newly established American colonies found themselves in a situation where disagreements were becoming more common. This took place right after the French and Indian War and the nation had a prodigious amount of debt to pay. In addition, Great Britain started to place countless taxes and restrictions on the American colonists to help raise money to support the economy. This unfair treatment really angered some colonists which led to a disruption of order and rebellion in certain colonies. In order to suppress this chaos, the Continental Congress met and created the Declaration of Independence. To a significant extent, the ideas about American Independence did shift from 1763 to 183. The ideas would slowly
After the French and Indian war, Britain needed money to cover the cost of the war. So they issued the Stamp Act, without asking the colonists or taking a vote in the colonies. The colonists protested the stamp act and eventually it was removed. Then Britain put more taxes on things like tea and other british goods. But this time instead of protesting, the Americans used violence, such as the Boston tea party, where they acted out by throwing chests of British tea into the boston harbor. Eventually, these protests and acts led to the Revolutionary War. The colonists were led by George Washington in the fight against Britain. To rally troops and support for the war against England, Colonists would put up what were known as “Liberty Poles” in towns and villages (Doc 5). These poles became a symbol of the Enlightenment spirit. They also served purposes as when the flags were raised that meant there was a meeting to plan for the
The reason why the colonist declared independence from Great Britain was because of unfair taxes. There was other cause factor of why the colonist wanted freedom but taxes were the beginning of the American revolution. Great Britain was in debt due to the Seven-Years war. They started to impose new taxes and policy on the colonist so they can also help Britain pay off their debt. Great Britain impose different policies, the Stamp act 1765 which imposed taxes on stamps needed for official documents, Townshend Revenue act 1767 which taxes glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea, and the Tea Act 1773 which taxes tea. The colonist did not like the new policies. The colonist didn’t use any means of violent they attempted to request peaceful negotiations however they were ignored. This lead to