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British relationship with the colonists
England conflicts with American colonies
British relationship with the colonists
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The American Revolution was caused by the unique nature of the American Colonists and their society in contrast to their relationship with the English Government and peoples. Life in America was not a life of leisure. American colonists had worked hard to cultivate their lands and develop their towns and cities. Rural life in the American colonies consisted not only of farmers, tradesmen also prospered. (Handlin. 24) By 1763, the American Colonies were spreading west. The expelling of the French and the Spaniards in 1763 opened lands of opportunity for the colonists. American colonists who settled in the new lands and the New World were a, “fresh breed of humans, self-reliant, rationalistic, disdainful of established ideas and authorities, vain, provincial, sometimes violent, often reckless”. (Handlin 130) Tensions began to build in the Colonies immediately after the 7 years war, or the French and Indian War. At this time the American Colonies were prospering. The colonists in America had no oppressing chains to throw off. “In fact, the colonists knew they were freer, more equal, more prosperous and less burdened with cumbersome feudal and monarchical restraints than any other part of mankind in the 18th Century”. (Wood 4) They had achieved an economic and political maturity that resented outside interference. (Jensen 34) They did not discover new ideas after 1763, but held up ideas of the rights of Englishmen which had begun back with the Magna Carta. The route to the American Revolution was based on this unique American character and the lack of understanding, which the British Government had for it. After the 7 years war, England was heavily in debt. This was the most that they’d ever been in debt in their history. Two years before the end of the war King George II died, and his grandson George III became king. King George III held the theory that to rule an empire you had to have a tight grip. “The colonies had always been the domain of the crown, administered by royally appointed officials. Parliament had seldom interfered—except to pass the Acts of Trade and Navigation, laws relating to finance, and laws prohibiting or limiting certain colonial manufactures. The attempt by parliament to raise money in the colonies by acts of Parliament, coupled with other restrictive legislation and administrative decisions, forced Americans, for the first time,... ... middle of paper ... ...t took for communication between the two nations it was very difficult for the British Ministers or King to fully appreciate the maturation and development of the Colonists. “The Revolution did not just eliminate monarchy and create republics; it actually reconstituted what Americans meant by public or state power and brought about an entirely new kind of popular politics and a new kind of democratic officeholder” (Wood 8). Works Cited Canfield, Cass. Sam Adams’s Revolution (1765-1776). New York: Harper and Row, 1976. Cook, Don. The Long Fuse; How England Lost The American Colonies, 1760-1785. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995 . Fleming, Thomas. Liberty! The American Revolution. New York: Penguin Group, 1997. Handlin, Oscar and Lilian. A Restless People; Americans in Rebellion 1770-1787. New York: Anchor Press, 1982. Jensen Merrill. The Founding of a Nation; A History of the American Revolution 1763-1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause; The American Revolution, 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
The beginning of 1763 marked one of the major events that would contribute to the end of British colonial relations. On February 3, 1763 the French and Indian War finally ended in British victory, but while the British celebrated the French’s defeat, colonists feared the oncoming reverberations the war would have on them. The main motive behind the war was for possession over the French fur trade territory in North America. To the colonists, the war was being fought by and for Britain not the colonies. The benefits of the victory only pertained to Britain. The after effect of the war for the colonies was the trampling on their need for expansion. During the war, Native Americans had fought with the French because of how well they treated them. Britain was notorious for abusing the Native Americans, therefore once the French were defeated; they began attacking western settlements of colonists. To avoid confrontation, the Proclamation of 1763 was passed by Parliament. The Proclamation established a limit to the greatly needed colonial expansion. Specifically, the Proclamation forbid settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The passing of the Proclamation of 1763 infuriated colonists ...
The relationship between Britain and her Americans colonies slowly deteriorated between the 1750s and the beginning of the American Revolution. When the first British immigrants settled in America, the relationship of the colonies and their mother country was somewhat peaceful. In the following generations, however, their relationship became tenser as Britain imposed policies and taxes on unrepresented American colonists. The British believed they were right in doing so because they had large debts to pay from ongoing wars with France. These taxes caused uprisings among colonists which contributed to British occupation in America, leading to more rebellions. Eventually, the rift in the relationship between the colonists and the British led to the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new country.
2.Morgan, Edmund S. The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
Eliga H. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution (North Carolina: Omohundro Institute, 2000),
Portland: Frank Cass & Company Limited, 1996. Middle Kauff, Robert. A.S.A. The Glorious Cause. The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Edward, Rebecca and Henretta, James and Self, Robert. America A Concise History. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
In the world’s lens during the 1760s, the British empire had a clear and prominent control over the colonies. However, by the mid-1770s the Americans became enraged enough to declare war against the British for independence. Due to Britain’s massive imperial presence around the globe, the British civilians had a strong inclination for a successful outcome. Instead, the colonists pulled a surprising victory from what should have been a swift defeat. While the British had an abundance of advantages, they lost the Revolutionary War because the British army underestimated the colonists’ perseverance for freedom.
After the French and Indian War, the British government decided to make the American colonies pay a large share of the war debt with new taxes that they issued. The English ...
... Bobrick, Benson. Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War. New York: Atheneum, 2004. Print.
The connection between Britain and the English colonies was that of the ruling of the colonies by the king of Britain, King George III and his parliament. The king’s ruling was very unfavorable for the colonists because of his tyrannic dictatorship and unjustly taxations. The mere thought of an island ruling an entire continent thousands of miles away with poor communication and lack of supervision of the colonies by the king, did not work in favor of the colonies nor for Britain. Three contributing factors for the outbreak of the American Revolution were (1) the king’s taxes, (2) neglect of the 13 colonies and (3) England’s mercantilism policy. King George III and his decisions were one of the major causes that had the English colonists fumed with anger towards Britain and this eventually led to the American Revolution.
Gordon S. Wood, in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, discusses what it means to be truly revolutionary. In this work, Wood shares his thoughts on the Revolutionary War and whether or not it was a movement radical enough to be considered an honest revolution. Wood discusses the reasoning behind the views of those in favor of the war being considered radical, as well as the views of those who believe the American Revolution to be unfortunately misnamed. He claims that “the Revolution was the most radical and most far- reaching event in American history.” Wood’s work is a valuable source for those studying the revolution because it redefines what it means to be radical, but the piece is also limited by the lack of primary information
Kate, Stanley & Murrin, John; Colonial America, Essay in Politics and Social Development; U.N.C. Press; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; 1983.
2. Cook Don, The Long Fuse How England lost the American colonies 1760-1785, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1995
...he fact that they had no political power and were controlled by a country that was thousands of miles away from them. The American Revolution began as a conflict over political and social change, but soon developed into a dispute over personal rights and political liberty. A decade of conflicts between the British government and the Americans, starting with the Stamp Act in 1765 that eventually led to war in 1775, along with The Declaration of Independence in 1776. Americans united as one and knew that they wanted to be an independent country, have their own laws, rights, and not be colony of the Great Britain. They fought hard for their independence and people lost their lives in the process of it but in the end they succeeded. Never give up, keep fighting till the mission is accomplished just like the Americans did when they were fighting for their independence.