American Revolution Causes Essay Example For Students

American Revolution Causes Essay The American Revolution began for many reasons, some are; long-term social, economic, and political changes in the British colonies, prior to 1750 provided the basis for and started a course to America becoming an independent nation under its own control with its own government. Not a tyrant king thousands of miles away. A huge factor in the start of the revolution was the French and Indian War during the years of 1754 through 1763; this changed the age-old bond between the colonies and Britain its mother. To top it off, a decade of conflicts between the British rule and the colonists, starting with the Stamp Act in 1765 that eventually led to the eruption of war in 1775, along with the drafting of The Declaration of Independence in 1776. Originally the fighting between Britain and France began in 1754 with a quarrel in North America. It had two different names. In America it is known as the French and Indian War. In Britain and Europe it is known as the Seven Years War, because the fighting lasted from 1756 to 1763. A result of the French and Indian war was a British decision to reconsider its relationship with its colonies. Prior to the French and Indian War, Britain had loosely controlled its colonies. British leaders regarded the colonial government as inferior. As long as only a few serious conflicts between Britain and America occurred, the British government permitted colonial assemblies to oversee the royal governors and to pass new laws that suited to the needs of the colonists. In addition, the British did not always enforce their laws in the colonies. For example, the British Customs Service, which was unproductive, understaffed, and open to corruption, did not enforce the Molasses Act of 1733. British leaders did not insist on strict enforcement of this tax or other commercial duties because thriving American trade was making Britain very wealthy and powerful nation. British statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke, a orator who successfully championed many human rights and causes by bringing people to attention through his moving speeches. Described his countrys policies toward the colonies as salutary neglect because he believed their leniency was actually beneficial. As a result of this salutary neglect, the colonists developed a political and economic system that was virtually independent. They were loyal, although somewhat uncooperative, subjects of the crown. (Encarta, 2k1)The war in North America was fought mostly throughout the Northern Briti sh colonies, and in the closing stages Great Britain overpowered France. During the peace talks, Britain gained French holdings in Canada and Florida from Frances ally, Spain. Nevertheless, Britain amassed a large debt over the course of the war. To help pay off the debt, Britain came up with the idea to use the American colonies to generate lost money. The French and Indian War changed the connection between Great Britain and the colonies. Before the war, Great Britain had become very wealthy from the colonies, after passing such acts as the Molasses Act in 1733, which imposed a tax on molasses. Molasses was used for a variety of things including making rum and was very important to the colonies economics. During the early period, the colonists had developed a nearly independent political and economic system. Because Britain had amassed large war debts; the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765. The act was intended to generate money from the colonies that would help pay for the cost to keep up a stable force of British troops in the American colonies. All authorized documents, including deeds, mortgages, newspapers, had to have a British government stamp, in order to be considered legal. Members of the Sons of Liberty, a patriotic secret group, were mostly active in opposing the stamp tax. They led a course of physical violence in which many official stamp agents were attacked by mobs and their possessions and property destroyed and taken from them. Resolutions of protest against the stamp act were adopted by a number of the colonial assemblies. The Virginia House of Burgesses made five such resolutions offered by Patrick Henry the American patriot. In resistance to the stamp act the Americans formed a stamp act congress as a means to protest against the acts. American Merchant s agreed to stop bringing in British goods until the act was abolished, and trade was considerably weakened. Rejecting to use the stamps on official and business papers became common, and the courts would not punish if the stamp was not on legal documents. British Parliament repealed the act on March 4, 1766, Benjamin Franklin argued to the House of Commons. Franklin was Pennsylvanias representative, in London. He turned out to be more of a representative of the Colonies as a whole. Repeal was to go along with the Declaratory Act, which declared the right of the British government to pass acts lawfully binding the colonists. The unity of the American colonists in their dislike of the Stamp Act added significantly to the rise of American opposition, and the argument between the colonists and the British government. The Stamp Act of 1765 required the American colonists to apply tax stamps, like those shown here, to all official documents, including deeds, mortgages, newspapers, and pa mphlets. The colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress to protest the act, which they called, taxation without representation. The Stamp Act is often considered one of the main causes of the American Revolution. Internet Privacy EssayIn the spring of 1766, John Gilchrist, a Norfolk merchant and ship-owner, came to believe that Captain William Smith had reported his smuggling activities to British authorities. In retribution, Gilchrist and several accomplices captured Smith and, as he reported, dawbed my body and face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers on me. Smiths assailants, which included the mayor of Norfolk, then carted him through every street in town, and threw him into the sea. Fortunately, Smith was rescued by a passing boat just as he was sinking, being able to swim no longer. (1) (1) Captain William Smith to J. Morgan, Apr. 3, 1766, in William and Mary Quarterly, 1st Ser., XXI (1913), p. 167. from sight : http://revolution.h-net.msu.edu/Tar and feathers was a very old form of punishment, but it does not appear to have ever been widely applied in England or in Europe. Why Gilchrist and his allies chose to resurrect tar and feathers on this particular occasion histori ans can only surmise. Whatever their reasons, these Virginians inaugurated a new trend in colonial resistance, a trend that their New England neighbors would eagerly follow. Throughout New England, tar and feathers soon became the popular Punishment for modern delinquents. By March, 1770, at least thirteen individuals had been feathered in the American colonies: eight in Massachusetts, two in New York, one in Virginia, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Connecticut. In all of these instances, the tar brush was reserved exclusively for customs inspectors and informers, those persons responsible for enforcing the Townshend duties on certain imported goods. Indeed, American patriots used tar and feathers to wage a war of intimidation against British tax collectors. These were the actions that made our country leap towards a revolution and eventually make it free. As the first line of the constitution says We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America., and this selection along with the rest of the constitution still stands today and has not been changed or altered since it was made. Work citedCarroll, Andrew, Letters for a Nation, Broadway New York, 1997 Gottschalk, Louis. Cause of Revolution. Schenckman Publishing Company, Inc.: Cambridge, 1971. Grolier Encyclopedia, Grolier 98, 1995-1998Microsoft Encarta, Encarta 2k1, 1993-2000 Microsoft. Olsen, Keith W., et al. An Outline of American History. As reprinted on the Internet http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/H/