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American revolution and liberlisation
French and Indian war dbq
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Let us travel back before the Revolutionary War, to the start of the French and Indian War. This is the only way to understand the future of the American Colonies, and ultimately the causes of the American Revolution. After the war, Britain had emerged as the world’s leading power, however, Britain’s national debt tripled. In order to relieve the heavy burden, the British decided to tax the American Colonies. This taxation caused massive rebellion by the Americans, and ultimately warfare. Professor Breen, a historian well familiar with the revolution, claims that the American colonists were motived by a new form of protest called boycotting. Breen explains that the revolution was a consumer revolution driven not just by elite landowners, but by all American colonists. Degler on the other hand states that the revolution was not a consumer revolution, and was mostly controlled by the elite aristocracy. In my own opinion, the American Revolution was a war that represented a country seeking freedom and liberty. Despite the use of boycotting, the colonies were also using other methods besides economics to break away from Britain. Taking Breen and Degler into consideration, the American Revolution was both an economic and political revolution.
“Professor Breen believes that the American Revolution was a consumer revolution that was based on the British importing of goods. American colonists used the boycotting system to break away from Britain, and establish their own economic currency” (128). Breen feels strong about his argument and gives excellent supporting evidence of an economic break. However; Breen seems to have missed the most important aspect of American culture of why we fight for “Liberty and Freedom.” Despite the tremend...
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...e of the freedom that is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it” These men had been satisfied with their existence, they were not disgruntled agitators or frustrated politicians; they were a strange new breed contented revolutionaries (143).” The revolution was a nationwide occurrence for all classes of people. The boycotting of British’s goods, started a revolt that would become the foundations to the greatest country on Earth. I take Breen and Degler’s statements into one final evaluation. The American Revolution was not a one sided “consumer” revolt driven by boycotting, or a political aristocracy wanting control. However, the revolution was an economic conflict driven by the new political protest of boycotting, which resulted in national support for a push to independence lead by our country elites.
Works Cited
Taking sides
Gary B. Nash argues that the American Revolution portrayed “radicalism” in the sense on how the American colonies and its protesters wanted to accommodate their own government. Generally what Gary B. Nash is trying to inform the reader is to discuss the different conditions made by the real people who were actually fighting for their freedom. In his argument he makes it clear that throughout the revolution people showed “radicalism” in the result of extreme riots against the Stamp Act merchants, but as well against the British policies that were implemented. He discusses the urgency of the Americans when it came to declaring their issues against the British on how many slaves became militants and went up against their masters in the fight for a proclamation to free themselves from slavery. But he slowly emerges into the argument on how colonists felt under the
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.
The benefit of hindsight allows modern historians to assume that colonists in British America united easily and naturally to throw off the bonds of tyranny in 1775-1776. The fact that "thirteen clocks were made to strike together" (p.4) surprised even the revolutionary leader John Adams. Prior to the mid-1700s many residents of British North America saw themselves in regional roles rather than as "Americans", they were Virginians or Bostonians, regional loyalties trumped any other including those as British colonial citizens. In T. H. Breen's work, The Marketplace of Revolution, he offers an explanation for the sudden creation of a unique American identity. In his words, "What gave the American Revolution distinctive shape was an earlier transformation of the Anglo-American consumer marketplace" (p. xv). Breen contends that before Americans could unite to resist the British Empire, they needed to first develop a unity and trust with one another in spite of their regional differences. "The Marketplace of Revolution argues, therefore, that the colonists shared experience as consumers provided them with the cultural resources needed to develop a bold new form of political protest" (p. xv). The transformation of the consumer marketplace allowed the colonists of British North America to create a unique British and the American identity that would later result in revolution and the formation of a new nation. This trust based on consumption, Breen concludes, was absolutely necessary for the boycott movement to be an effective tool against the British government. "Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people protest remains a local affair easily silence by traditional authority" (p.1).
Some say that the Revolution was destined to happen ever since Settlers set foot on this continent, others argue that it would not have happened if it weren't for a set of issues that finally drove the colonists to revolt. Ultimately, Britain lost control in 1765 when they gave in to the Stamp Act Congress’s boycotts against parliamentary taxation and gave them the idea that they had the power to run a country. To a lesser degree, Salutary Neglect led to the conception of a legacy of colonial religious and political ideals which set in motion an eminent conflict. During this period, England “forgot” about the colonies and gave them colonists a taste of independence and suspicions of individual political theories. Through Parliament's ruthless taxation without representation and a near opposite religious and political mindset, Britain and the colonists were heaved into a revolutionary war.
The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war between England and the colonies which were settled earlier by the English. There were many factors and events that led to the American Revolution. The Revolution was mainly an economic rebellion that was fueled by taxation without representation following the French and Indian War. The English Parliament was more often than not considered cruel and unfair by the colonists. With conflicts over trade, taxes and government representation, the colonies were at a starting line of a revolution that would later transform into the basis of the United States of America.
In the essay written by Gary Nash, he argues that the reason for the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but that of “material conditions of life in America” were not very favorable and that social and economic factors should be considered as the driving factor that pushed many colonists to revolt. The popular ideology which can be defined as resonating “most strongly within the middle and lower strata of society and went far beyond constitutional rights to a discussion of the proper distribution of wealth and power in the social system” had a dynamic role in the decisions of many people to revolt. The masses ideas were not of constitutional rights, but the equal distribution of wealth in the colonies that many felt that the wealth was concentrated in a small percentage of the population in the colonies. The Whig ideology that was long established in English society had a main appeal towards the upper class citizens and “had little to say about changing social and economic conditions in America or the need for change in the future.” The popular ideologies consisted of new ways of changing the distribution of wealth. Nash in his essay continued to give good evidence to prove his point that the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but by improper distribution of wealth. During the pre-American Revolutionary times, the “top five percent of Boston’s taxpayers controlled 49 ...
The American revolution was a reaction to unfavorable tax policies from the King of England. When the King of England began to infringe on the colonists’ liberties, leaders inspired by the enlightenment grouped together to defend the rights of the American colonies. As Thomas Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence, “History of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries ad usurpations,
“The Revolution was the most radical and far reaching event in American history.” This is the premise of Gordon S. Wood’s book The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Within these pages Wood attempts to prove that the American Revolution was radical because it fundamentally changed the social and political structures of colonial America, structures that had always been fused together. Accordingly, he asserts that the separation of these institutions forms the basis of his argument for radicalism.
Many revolutions have taken place throughout history, ranging from the unremarkable to the truly memorable, such as the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and the American Revolution. Through an examination of the social, cultural, economic and political causes of the American Revolution, an exploration of key arguments both for and against the American Revolution, and an analysis of the social, cultural, economic and political changes brought about by the American Revolution it can be demonstrated unequivocally that the American Revolution was indeed truly revolutionary.
A revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. In 1775, America was ready for dramatic change, freedom, and a disconnection with Great Britain. Taxes, trade regulations, and overarchingly, power, made all colonists, aside from the loyalists, more than ready to detach from Great Britain 's rule. The American Revolution portrays many similarities and qualities of the French revolution, due to the inspiration of one to another. The similarities and qualities lie within their down spiraling economies, selfish, money wealth-thirsty leaders, ideologies, and provocation.
However, it was. “By bringing forcefully and convincingly to our attention that casual links among British imports, British taxation, and massive American resistance, the marketplace of revolution adds a new dimension to our understanding of the process, not the cause, of the revolution.”( Henretta pg769). Henretta, did not agree with TH Breen on this matter. As shown above, the true cause of the American revolution did starte off with a peddler coming to the town of Berwick announcing that he had the luxuries of England with him to trade. With more peddlers coming to town selling/trading these goods, it started how we Americans still live today. The marketing revolution triggered the Industrial revolution which started our first national bank and a system that inspired the Erie Canal. Now that’s a
The American Revolution marked the divorce of the British Empire and its one of the most valued colonies. Behind the independence that America had fought so hard for, there emerged a diverging society that was eager to embrace new doctrines. The ideals in the revolution that motivated the people to fight for freedom continued to influence American society well beyond the colonial period. For example, the ideas borrowed from John Locke about the natural rights of man was extended in an unsuccessful effort to include women and slaves. The creation of state governments and the search for a national government were the first steps that Americans took to experiment with their own system. Expansion, postwar depression as well as the new distribution of land were all evidence that pointed to the gradual maturing of the economic system. Although America was fast on its way to becoming a strong and powerful nation, the underlying issues brought about by the Revolution remained an important part in the social, political and economical developments that in some instances contradicted revolutionary principles in the period from 1775-1800.
In concern to the American Revolution, there are two sides debating its primary cause. One set of historians believe the cause to be ideals and principles. The other set of historians and scholars credit economic and social interests as the primary cause of the Revolutionary War. Historians Jesse Lemisch and Dirk Hoerder used the mobs in colonial cities as evidence of the social concerns of Americans at that time. Another Historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger argued in a 1917 study “that it was the colonial merchants who were chiefly responsible for arousing American resistance to the British; and that although they spoke of principles and ideals, their real motives were economic self-interest: freedom from the restrictive policies of British mercantilism.” This argument is very concrete and is supported by the different legislation that the British Parliament passed after the Seven Years’ War. In fact, an act was passed in 1764 by the Parliament that was instrumental in specifically angering the merchants that played a major role in leading the Americans to independence. That piece of legislation was the Sugar Act which placed a tax on sugar being brought into the colonies. This tax was a significantly less than the one that was logged in the book previously; however, that tax had been ignored for years. The initial response of the merchants to this piece of legislation was anger because this new law cut off their highly profitable smuggling organizations which greatly affected their earnings. Soon after tha...
A revolution is a take-over of a government in which the pushing side puts another government in its place. The American Revolution began in 1775, and the patriots was ready for change, liberation due to cessation from Great Britain. Taxes, trade regulations, and most of all, power made all colonist prompt to leave from Great Britain's rule. The American Revolution has certain similarities and qualities to other revolutions. However, the ones before this had nowhere near the magnitude of this up roar that came with it. It was believed that The American Revolution was started basically because of problems with the British government. The major concept of the time was "taxation without representation". However, there was the economic point arose that gave side to a more consumer and the market reason. Even though the latter side has its points, I believe that the American Revolution was not a product of market-driven forces.
The issue of origins of the American Revolution has always been controversial. According to Brinkley, starting from the beginning of 20th century, there can be distinguished two clearly different approaches to the problem of defining the grounds of the conflict (1993, p.145-146). The representatives of the first approach considered the Revolution to have been a political process. The main trigger of it was the ideology of the so-called patriots, who were founded on the political philosophy of republicanism. The second approach looked on the War of Independence as a social and economic phenomenon. According to its followers, the core motif of the struggle was the “no taxation without representation” principle. In this work, we will integrate both approaches with a view to exploring three major mistakes made by the British