Olive Branch Petition Essay

Some historians believe that American Colonists were in the wrong to start the American Revolution. “To this day, now over two hundred years later, the reasons behind this abrupt transition of England and its American colonies from allies to enemies are debated.” . I believe that the American colonists made the right decision on seperating from Britain because of the new tax acts imposed, Boston Massacre, and Intolerable Acts.

The Revolutionary War was avoidable because England could have not upset the colonists, and could have been fair to them, and the colonists could have not rebelled against the British. There is multiple ways either of these could have happened, such as England could have not taxed the colonists so unfairly. On the other side of the argument, the colonists could have not make revolution propaganda against Britain or destroyed Britains trade goods. To summarize, both sides could have done many things differently to avoid war.

The British government was not looking for the best of the people. They were only thinking about what they wanted; the government was not interested in what the people wanted so they decided to make decisions on their own, which resulted in changes that form the United States today. Because of this, they were justified in rebelling and declaring independence.

The American Revolution was, to date, the best event to happen on American soil, providing freedom and representation in government to the individuals who fought so hard for it. France and Spain aided our cause, helping this group of brave colonists to defeat the strongest army in the world. But, there is a question still not answered; were the colonists justified in breaking away from Britain? The American colonists were justified in breaking away from the British because there was taxation without representation, they had no freedom, and the British government violated their individual British rights.

In the Declaration of Rights and Grievances issued by the Stamp Act Congress, they claimed that Parliament lacked the power to tax the colonies because they had no representation. While the Stamp Act was repealed, the colonists were never given representation in Parliament. In the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”, issued by the Second Continental Congress, this same issue was cited as a justification for fighting. “[The British declare] that parliament can ‘of right make laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever.’ What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited power?” (Document 5). After ten years of disagreement over Parliamentary representation, the British were still unwilling to grant the colonists this right. Before the Second Continental Congress decided to go to war, there was still hope of reaching a peaceful settlement. The Congress sent King George the Olive Branch Petition in the hopes of restoring peace. His lack of response is noted in “The Declaration of Independence”, which was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, American Independence Day. The king is defined as having as his objective, “…the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States” (Document 7). The desire for the British to exercise complete control over the colonies, and an unwillingness to negotiate any peaceful compromise made war

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

The American Revolution was a period of anxiety and conflict between Great Britain and the American colonists. The fight for independence began as a riotous battle occurred at Lexington and Concord, located in Massachusetts. Surprisingly, the American colonists were prosperous in many of the battles during the time of war. The war had lasted for eight years, and officially ended when a treaty was signed by Great Britain. In turn, the Americans earned independence and a lot of rights that other countries did not have. The American colonists had a large defiance in their hands, due to the fact that the British were extremely robust. Whereas the British had a very successful army and won the majority of their wars, the

American Revolution began in 1775. There were lots of events, which led to the America revolution. Till 1763, everything was going in favor of England. Majority of the Americas were in favor of British rule, and they were big supporter. They use to treat parliament and queen of England with full respect. Things begin to change around 1760s, when British parliament passed series of laws without the consultation of American people. The one such law in this series was Stamp act. The Stamp act was passed in 1765. Americans found this tax to be unconstitutional and disturbing because they believed that no freeman could be forced to pay the tax without his permission. Even Benjamin Franklin personally requested the British parliament to relook the

Prior to the American Revolution, history had shown cases of tyrannical governments taking advantage of the people. In most cases these tyrannical governments were shown no mercy and many times they were overthrown. For the American Colonies and the British Government this was completely different. It was different in the way that the American Colonies had shown great dislike for the lack of representation, taxes, and its plain disrespect from its mother land. The American Colonies attempted many times to catch the attention of the King in order to prevent anymore disliking for the crown and his government. These dislikes would soon grow into tensions as the British government ignored the American Colonies solutions.

Before Britain became the dictatorial power clouding any American effort to speak up, they were involved in a series of four wars. The last of them, the French and Indian War, occurred on American soil and the British victory handed England a pile of debt and a huge land dispute between the Indians residing in the territory the British gained through the Treaty of Paris and the colonists eager for new land. This started the ferocious turmoil between Britain and the American colonies. From the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, British antagonistic policies only added gasoline to America’s resentment of British rule, and sparked their unity and dedication to colonial republican values.

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 Olive Branch Petition was sent from the colonists to Great Britain in hopes of achieving peace and relieving the tensions between them put in place prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1774. Great Britain responded to the petition with a letter referring to the colonists as traitors to their mother country. This response effectively initiated the Revolutionary War for the colonists. Many varying political views stemmed from whether the colonists should embark on a revolution that would move them out of the guidance of Great Britain and that would provide them independence from Great Britain. Some argued that the revolution would be a “conservative” revolution where every thing will remain largely the same, in terms of political

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.

Even with the ideas of a split nation from Britain and becoming their own nation, these goals were still hard to achieve. Battles were fought, lives were lost, Treaties were signed, and Acts were put into place. With all of these ideas of America becoming a free country wasn’t easy to accomplish. The country you and I live in today is due to these delegates and members of the Continental Army for fighting for our freedom.

The “point of no return” for the American Revolution to occur, the event that sparked the beginnings of the American Revolution, was The Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was one of the last biggest protests against England’s “Intolerable Acts”, as the colonists liked to call them. Neither the colonies nor did Britain really want to seperate, but the situation they were in caused them to. England was being very controlling over the colonies because they were of great economical benefit to them. The colonies were reluctant to even consider separation because all they really wanted was their rights. But England wouldn’t let them be self-sufficient, even to the point of being able to print money. Everything had to come from England, they