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Back to Subjects - American History

None Provided3

None Provided3 Imagine you are an American Colonists just making ends meet as a merchant. There has recently been a war between the French and the British. During the war, you continued to trade with the enemy and smuggle goods, while your colonial assembly repeatedly refused to provide military officials with men and supplies. The war eventually ends, leaving the British with debt and expensive responsibilities to administer newly acquired territory in North America, they received from the French. Believing that the Navigation Acts should be enforced strictly and that the lightly taxed colonists should pay a share of the empire's defense costs, Parliament in March 1765 passes the Stamp Act to raise revenue. Next thing you know Parliament imposes another act on the colonies, the Mutiny Act, stating that the colonists must house and maintain the British troops. Ok, you are a bit mad, but it is maintainable. Out of the blue, you hear about a shooting in Boston, where five people were shoot by the British troops, there is a lot of propaganda surrounding. Your neighbors, along with yourself are enraged by what you hear. Following this incident there is much propaganda in pamphlets passed out concerning colonial religion and political ideas. These things and others happened to the colonists and impart enthralled and provoked them to rebel and in effect brought about the American Revolution. From the information I have gathered in class and from my own personal reading, I have concurred that Parliament taxation was the parent irritation to the other annoyances. The Seven Years' War Showed the British officials that the Americans had no regard for the Navigation Acts and imperial authority. Example of this were colonial merchants continuing to trade with the enemy and smuggle goods, while colonial assemblies repeatedly refused to provide military officials with men and supplies. The war left Great Britain with a considerable debt and expensive responsibilities to administer newly acquired territory in North America. As a result, Parliament in March 1765 passed the Stamp Act to raise revenue. This act required the colonists to purchase and use specially stamped paper for all official documents, deeds, mortgages, newspapers, and pamphlets. The Stamp Act provoked opposition among the colonists, who saw this as a violation of their rights. To the colonists, the Stamp Act violated the right of English subjects not to be taxed without representation; it also weakened the independence of their colonial assemblies. As a result, protest arose against the Stamp Act. Colonial assemblies tried petitioning the Parliament to have the Act repealed, but that failed. In protest, American merchants banded together promising not to buy British goods. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766. The next thing that provoked the Revolutionary War was the colonists persecution of civil liberties. Civil liberties are fundamental individual rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, protected by legal guarantee. An example of the colonists civil liberties being infringed upon was the Quartering Act of 1765. The quartering Act made it mandatory that the American colonists had to provide quarters and supplies for the British troops in America. The British saw this as a reasonable requirement, since the troops were stationed in America to provide protection from Indian and French attacks and to defend the frontiers. The colonists, however, saw this as another invasion on their liberties. The colonists did not have a problem with quartering and supplying them , but the fact that it was now mandatory made it worse. As if that was not enough the people that the British sent over to keep order in the colonies were often arrogant, intrusive, sometimes coarse, and provocative. The presence of the British troops was a constant slap in the face to the colonists idea of independence and a constant reminder of British oppression. There was a lot of tension between the colonists and the British soldiers, mostly because many of the soldiers poorly paid and treated by the army moonlighted for jobs in their off-duty hours, taking away jobs from the already struggling local workers. A harsh example of this would be the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Some Bostonians were disturbing a customs house, the British troops were sent over to disperse the unruly people, a British soldier got knocked down in the process, and the British opened fire, killing 5 people. The propaganda surrounding this incident was great and was seen as a symbol of British oppression and brutality. The last of the factors that prompted Americans to rebel in 1776 was the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas. Many of the religious ideas that came about against the British were Puritan ideas, others came from Whigs, and Scottish people. They also derived many of their ideas from philosophers like John Locke and others. Also during this time came an idea of what government should be. This concept went as follows: Because humans were inherently corrupt and selfish, government was necessary to protect individuals from the evil in one another. But corruptible people ran the government, and so it to needed safeguards. The colonists also believed that the English Constitution should be like colonial charter, written down so untrustworthy politicians would not tamper with its essential quality. Another theory that the colonists had that the British did not share was the theory of actual representation. This meant that every community was entitled to its own representative , elected by the people of that community and directly responsible to them. In conclusion, all four factors contributed to the promoting of the Americans to rebel in 1776. But the catalyst for the three was the first, the Parliamentary taxation. If that did not take place, we would probably still be part of England. It took the taxation to spark a little fire in the haystack of revolution. Bibliography:

Word Count: 979