Imperial Crisis 1763 Analysis

The Boston Tea Party was a violent, courageous, and an eventful act that took place in 1997 because of constant disputes. It started to become a large issue when the British and English colonist constantly disagreed about the unfair taxes that were charged from the British. The colonists didn’t agree to the taxes at all the the government officials formed a plan. The British put such a hefty tax on the tea because they realized the demand was so outrageously high, and they could make a much larger profit off of it. Colonists did not want to pay the huge taxes, so they started buying/smuggling tea from East India, but the British wanted to have the colonists to buy tea from them because of the taxes.

During the Colonial Era (1492-1763), colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain; due to the inequitable Stamp Act, the insufferable British oppression, and the perceived tyranny of King George III, the king of Great Britain, however, the colonists were unjustified in some of their actions.

In my opinion the one event that had the most significant role in the American Revolution was when the British made the Coercive/ Intolerable Acts. When the British made these acts, they cut off ports and a colony, and made a number of acts to punish the colonies. These acts made the colonist start an uprising against the British. These uprises lead to the colonist going against the British and starting the American Revolution.

At the dawn of the 1770s, American colonial resentment of the British Parliament in London had been steadily increasing for some time. Retaliating in 1766, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act which repealed most taxes except issued a reinforcement of Parliament’s supremacy. In a fascinating exchange, we see that the Parliament identifies and responds to the colonists main claim; Parliament had no right to directly tax colonists who had no representation in Parliament itself. By asserting Parliamentary supremacy while simultaneously repealing the Stamp Act and scaling back the Sugar Act, Parliament essentially established the hill it would die on, that being its legitimacy. With the stage set for colonial conflict in the 1770s, all but one

On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the primary objective of which was to save the British East India Company from bankruptcy. It also eliminated all tea tax except the three pence Townshend tax. A third goal of the Tea Act was to offer Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers [1]. However what happened was the average American colonist became angry with this latest act in a long line of unpopular policies, laws, and taxes imposed on him by Britain [2].

Many of the reasons the American colonies believed they were justified in their rebellion from England lay in trade and taxes. When George III inherited the throne at the end of the Seven Years’ War England’s debt had risen to 145 million pounds and his chief minister believed that the American colonies needed to help shoulder the debt. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 134) In attempting to collect these taxes from the colonies to relieve the mounting debt Parliament passed a range of acts, which led to discontent among the colonists as many of them restricted trade, their political maneuverability and left many believing they infringed upon their “right to be taxed only by their own consent.” (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 135) The Stamp and Townshend Acts

•Parliament issued the first internal tax imposed directly on American colonists by the british government. It levied a tax on all printed paper in the colonies. Britain thought that it was a ongoing tax, that would be spread throughout the colonies. Colonist disagreed and it arose one of the most powerful demographic groups to oppose Britain.Colonists burned the Chancellor of the Exchequer and promised to hang him if he ever visited the colonies again. The Sons of Liberty club sprang up to oppose the tax, so they burned the stamps and drove out all the stamp collectors. The Boston Sons of Liberty, headed by Sam Adams, was one of the most uncontrollable patriots in the country.

Soon after the Seven Years’ War, the British and the colonists learned that victory came with a rather expensive price (Kennedy, Cohen, & Bailey, 2010). Great Britain tightened its grip on the colonies in North America, expecting colonists to pay for their financial struggles. In order to make colonists pay for the war, Great Britain reminded the North American colonies who had authority by controlling the colonists to submit to various ordinances ratified by British Parliament. This action only showed that arrogance leads to rebellion socially, economically, and politically.

The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot”. They were throwing sticks, snowballs, and trash at a group of British troops. The loyalists got very annoyed with the patriots so they shot into the mob killing five. The riot began when around 50 colonists attacked a British sentinel. A British officer called in for additional troops and they too were attacked so they had to fire into the mob.

British policies established in 1763-1776 greatly affected the colonists and pushed them towards developing their own republican values. All of the acts and taxes the British issued and how overly controlling the British were over the colonists was the starting point, also the increasing rebellions encouraged the colonists to break away from Britain’s rule, and finally the wars that resulted and seizing authority from the British was the final turning point for the colonists in eliminating Britain’s heavy-handed ruling over the colonists.

After the French and Indian War, the British government needed money to pay for the cost of protecting the colonists from the French and Indians. The British government approved several taxes including the Stamp and Tea Acts to help pay for the costs of the war. The colonists were expected to pay these taxes.

One time the British passed a law that allowed the british soldiers to forcefully live in the colonists’ home! The colonies started out to benefit Great Britain, but after one war and lots of laws, the colonies were going to be part of a revolution. What was the American Revolution about? Economic Rights or Civil Liberties? On one hand the British instilled unfair regulations on trade and goods. On the other hand the British deprived the colonists of even the most basic of rights. The American Revolution was more about Civil Liberties because there are three main arguments that support it: Taxation without Representation, the Quartering Act, and the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts. These actions that the British did justified the colonists’ revolution.

The Intolerable Acts can be viewed as one of the first sparks to the flaming fire of America claiming Independence. The Intolerable Acts, also called the Coercive Acts, were a series of laws passed in 1774 in order to punish the colonies for defying their rule. Four out of five of the Intolerable Acts were directed towards Massachusetts directly and the other was directed at Quebec. All of the Acts were supposed to stop the colonies from defying England’s Rule and show the colonies that England was still in charge.

The relationship between Britain and its American colonies was civil at first but began to strain in the mid-1700’s. In the beginning, Britain ruled colonies with little involvement because they were busy dealing with the French and Indian War among other things. As a result of this, the colonies were typically left in charge of themselves with little interference from British authorities. After years of being left alone, the colonists had developed a feeling of freedom and independence. When the war ended there was a significant change in the relations between England and the colonies. Britain had built up a great debt and the colonies were a financial burden to run, to try and resolve their problems the British instituted various measures

At the commence of the War England had a National Debt of 72,000,000 Pounds in 1754. By 1763, England had a National Debt of 135,000,000 Pounds, which equivalent to $10,000,000 today. With this economic collapse, England had to find newer ways of paying this money and a way of paying this off was by making tax and putting them on the Colonies. Mercantilism was employed to give/buy from England the manufactured goods and other items that will keep its economy stable. The British Council in 1763 Complained saying, “ We find that the revenue arising therefrom is very small and inconsiderable, …. and is not yet sufficient to defray a fourth part of the expense necessary for collecting it.” This push to collect more money and enforce new laws created a hatred towards England. In the Document it continues to say, “We observe with concern that through neglect, connivance, and fraud, not only is revenue impaired, but the commerce of the colonies diverted from its natural course”. England came to the conclusion that through their neglect towards the Colonies and not paying attention to them, they were able to do what they wanted. Britain enforcing the Stamp Act resulted in a huge deterioration to the Economy. Benjamin’s letter to John Hughes in Document G confirmed clearly that they wanted to get the Stamp Act “repeal’d”. Because of the failure to get it repealed, the Colonies began to Boycott