English Colonialism: Questions: The Reasons For English Imperialism

Additionally, the American colonists felt that the implemented taxes and laws were unjust. There were many unjust laws and taxes forced upon the colonies. In document two, the author states that Great Britain has the “legal authority to regulate the trade of Great Britain and all her colonies”. He believes that the raising revenue from the trade was never intended, and that the British Parliament never had the intention of implementing duties - duties before the Stamp Act - for the sake of raising revenue. However, the author felt that the Stamp Act and Townshend Act and the other acts from the Stamp Act onwards were unconstitutional.

In 1760, when George III became the King of England, his one mission was to get rid of the war debt with the help of the colonists. (137) This angered the colonists because they felt as if their rights have been taken away from them. This caused the colonial men and women to come together and fight for their rights. They formed the Sons and Daughters of Liberty groups, in order to get their rights back. They had to battle many obstacles in order to reach their accomplishments of eliminating the collection of the stamp tax and enforcing the Nonimportation Agreements.

The Stamp Act taxed newspapers and pamphlets, which outraged the colonists. The colonists refused to submit to a king that was only interested in their money, causing the colonists to become irate with the British once more. Since Great Britain thought that it was superior to the colonies, Great Britain did not give colonists the opportunity to speak up for what they wanted, which lead the colonists to rebel. The arrogance of Great Britain led to the rebellion of the colonists, which sparked the Revolutionary War through social, economic, and political actions. Furthermore, Great Britain caused a tremendous amount of irritation to develop inside of the colonists.

However, when George Grenville became prime minister he attempted to re-establish the policy, but colonists still continued to trade (Fiore Notes). “The colonists had asked for the same political rights as people in Britain, they said, but the king had stubbornly refused. Therefore, the colonists were justified in rebelling against a tyrant who had broken the social contract.” (Beck 641). According to John Locke, if a government fails to protect people 's rights: liberty, property, and life, citizens would have the right to rebel (Fiore notes). George III and the British parliament were attacking their liberties.

Essentially, Holton makes it seem like the British were more on the side of the Indians then they were for their own colonists. The Virginians took the land by force (Dunmore’s War) because Britain was not going to play apart in negotiating land. The built up anger amongst those land speculators led to them making one of the most important decisions in American history. Because wars generally violate treaties with Britain and the Indians, Virginia needed to declare independence to have the right to do what they pleased. Holton’s opinion opened my eyes.to different views of the American Revolution than was once perceived.

He organized a rebel group, the Sons of Liberty, to protest the Acts. In conclusion, the Currency Act was created in England by Parliament in 1751 and 1764. The Act was made to get the colonists to behave. The Act stopped the printing of money in the colonies and forced the colonists to use British money. The act restricted trade with other areas of the world.

Three arguments that support that the American revolution was about civil liberties are cancelation of self-government, taxation without representation, and the forcing of colonists to provide for British soldiers. The first reason the American revolution was about civil liberties was the cancellation of self-government. To punish angry colonists, the British made the Massachusetts government act which annulled all colonial power in American government. This includes even taking away power at own meetings. (Doc 6) This let England take control of all self-government

The act was just the beginning of the reforms that began to make the colonists concerned about the intent of the Parliament. The Stamp act was the reform that made the colonists very angry though because it was the first internal tax levied directly on them by the government. The Stamp act was a direct tax on land titles, contracts, court documents, newspapers and all other paper documents in the colonies. The colonists heavily protested this act saying that it was “unconstitutional.” When Grenville, the prime minister, announced the law and asked for feedback, every colonial legislature protested and demanded it gone. Parliament refused to accept these petitions which caused further anger toward them from the colonists.

2.The validity of these claims can certainly be called into question. It could be argued that American ideas for revolution began before the Stamp Act because of the many preceding events. (79) After living in salutary neglect for so long, when Great Britain began to tax the colonies to help pay for debts from the French and Indian war colonists resisted Great Britain 's authority, exhibited by the Boston Massacre. The so called massacre of colonists in Boston heightened tensions between the colonies and Great Britain. The Navigation Acts of 1751, although not well implemented, show that Great Britain has ended its period of salutary neglect and are attempting to enforce the

After all the taxes and limitations were placed onto the colonists, they were angry and wanted war, this is shown from the tarring and feathering of the British and the disregard of taxes and acts placed on them by the British, many of the colonists used propaganda to support the cause such as Thomas Paine’s book “Common Sense” or Paul Revere’s paining of the Boston Massacre, these were both used as effective propaganda to anger the colonists against the British, but if these were not created, the revolution would not have had as much strength, and might have died down, which would have avoided the war or if people had listened to the colonists that did not want war or loyalists that showed that there was a way to resolve the differences without violence, as shown in James Chalmer’s Pamphlet, “Plain Truth”. Another way the war could have been avoided is if the British had signed the Olive Branch Petition, as shown in the Second Continental Congress meeting, which would give the colonies independence from Britain and there would be no need for the war. However, this did not happen, the British declined the Olive Branch Petition and went to war with the colonies. These sources show that there was many ways other than actions that the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. To sum it all up, there was many ways that the Revolutionary War could have been avoided, such as the British not being unfair to the colonists, or the colonists not rebelling against the British.