There were many reasons that the Second Continental congress declared independence from Great Britain. Life in the colonies was great, at first, soon after Great Britain started creating crazy amounts of taxes to support the mother country. In the year 1776 the Second Continental Congress officially declared independence from Great Britain. The first thing that Great Britain did to the colonies is they created the Navigational Acts. The Navigational Acts were a set of laws to make sure that Great Britain would profit from trade instead of any other country. The downside to The Navigational Acts were that the colonies were still relying on Britain. There were already taxes set on so many things; stamp act, sugaring act, quartering act, and …show more content…
The sugar act put taxes on sugar and molasses that was imported into the colonies. This act affected the construction of rum in New England. The Sugar act was unfair to the colonists because
The second thing that made the Second Continental Congress want to break from Great Britain were all the Acts, specifically the intolerable acts. The intolerable were a set of acts set in place in order to punish those who had taken part of the Boston Tea Party. One of the intolerable acts was the Quebec Act. After the intolerable acts the colonies decided to come together to discuss the intolerable acts. They met in Philadelphia where twelve of thirteen colonies showed up. The congress was held in 1774. At the first continental congress the colonists were mostly all still loyal to the king and came to the congress thinking there must be some misunderstanding, they weren’t thinking about declaring independence from Great Britain at this point in time. The last thing that the continental congress decided that they would do before they headed there own ways that if their ambition wasn’t met that they would meet back for a second continental congress, May
In the 1774, the first Continental Congress was put together. The Congress was a meeting of delegates from all except one of the thirteen colonies. They all met to discuss what shall be done about the “Intolerable Acts” that was being passed as a response for the” Boston Tea Party”. The meeting elected fifty-six delegates from the colonies except Georgia. Georgia did not want to upset Britain because they required help from Britain about Georgia’s Native American problem.
The purpose of these acts were, to punish the Americans after the events from the Boston Tea Party. The reason why they punished the Americans was to teach them a lesson after dumping the tea into the water. The Americans called the laws The Intolerable Acts. The so called Acts were, the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Quartering Act, and finally the Quebec Act.
On September 5th, 1774 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the first Continental Congress meeting was held in Carpenters Hall. Fifty-Six delegates from all of the colonies attended that meeting except for Georgia. Some of the Fifty-Six delegates were Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Jay Adams, and John Jay. They discussed the Declaration of Independance and taxation without representation from the British. After the meeting they had little to no actions for a while until the second meeting, where they signed the declaration of independance and America was born.
The Navigation Acts restricted foreign trade to competition with other countries, while reducing the chances of the colonies becoming an independent nation; in addition, all British products that were to be sent to the colonies were heavily taxed in order to create more profit. The Sugar Act placed tax on sugar, wine, and coffee, and denied any colonist accused of smuggling trial by jury, eventually leading to a drastic plummet in the rum industry. Finally, the Stamp Act, an act that was passed without the consent of the colonists, that taxed any paper or document in order to gain money from the colonists for Britain, ultimately leading to the colonists revolting against Britain, and writing newspapers that promoted the idea of independence from the imperialist nation that had repeatedly denied them their liberty, democracy, and
Navigation Acts- In 1660, King Charles II created the Navigation Acts, a restriction on British trade with the purpose of benefitting the British economy. These three acts aided with the increased production of products from the New World and encouraged a shipbuilding industry specific to the colonies. This system helped England because they did not have to import items from rival countries; they simply had to import goods from their own
The settlers in the colonies started to gathering ideas to create their own nation and stop being ruled by the British Government. The problem with pure democracy was that people were not treated equal and the government was abusing of its power, and the colonists wanted a solution to that problem. The Declaration of Independence took place in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered for the Second Continental Congress they were seeking a solution for the similar problem they had in the colonies. Our founding fathers signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
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. One reason why the colonists decided to rebel and declare independence was because of taxation.
Claire Turner American History Test I The American Revolution The Second Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 because they were being treated with unfair and unjust taxes and laws. The Second Continental Congress was a representation of the colonists and colonies as a whole, to Britain. In the beginning of the Congress the majority wanted to stay loyal to “The Crown,” and make peace with it.
Britain needed a way to fix this. They came up with the Sugar Act, a set of taxes to help Britain raise money. Taxes were not a new thing for the colonists, but these new taxes caused big issues. The Sugar Act was suggested by Prime Minister George Greenville.
The French-Indian War of 1754-1763 resulted in political, ideological, and economic alterations within Britain and its American colonies. The French and Indian War, also referred to as The Seven Years War, began with British and French conflicts across the Ohio River Valley, as both nations wanted to claim the land for themselves. The first blood of the French-Indian War began with multiple British failures, including Washington’s dreadful defeat at Fort Necessity and General Braddock’s failed attempt at conquering Fort Duquesne, in which he died along with two-thirds of his army (Document C). The British would, however, gain momentum in 1759 with multiple victories, including their most significant triumph, Quebec.
The colonies also called for a continental congress, in the first meeting they made decisions basically defending themselves from anything Britain could possibly throw at them: military preparations in case the British in Boston chose to attack, boycotting in hopes of abolishing trade with Great Britain, rejecting a colonial union under British control, the basically wanted nothing to do with Great Britain because Britain abused their power over the colonists to begin with. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the official turning point for the colonists, they had colonists prepared with guns, minutemen, that were ready to fight at a seconds notice and they kept close eyes on Boston just in case the British chose to attack. William Dawes and Paul Revere were keeping watch for any British movement. When the British came the colonists were ready and by the end of the battle the British had lost many of their troops in this revolutionary war. This war was definitely the beginning of the fight for independence for the colonists, thy showed the British that they could stand up for themselves and that they deserved better treatment.
Since they did most of the shopping, they were the ones who had to find a way to get their nessecities without buying British items. The new leader, Lord North, realized that the Townshend Acts were a big money loser so he pursuaded the Parliment to stop the Townshend Acts. All taxes were lifted exept for the tea duty, which
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
Intolerable Acts 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.
Specifically, they discussed the situation of the Intolerable Acts that the British Parliament enforced on Boston due to the incident of the Boston Tea Party. One of the results of this First Continental Congress was the delegates explained to King George III that there were issues with how the colonies were being treated. The delegates told King George III that if he didn’t put an end to the Intolerable Acts,