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Colonial relationship between britain and america
The analyze of Boston Tea Party
Boston tea party and the american revolution
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On December 16, 1773, the scale of tolerance tipped to the lowest level possible in the Colonies. Because of Great Britain’s involvement in the French and Indian War, Great Britain accumulated a large amount of debt owed to the East-India Company. As an attempt to reduce its debt, Great Britain imposed many acts of taxation on the Colonies. Great Britain viewed the Colonies key to repay its debt. One of the significant acts imposed by Great Britain was the Townshend Acts. This particular act placed taxes on imported materials such as glass, lead, paint, and most importantly, tea. Tea was the most popular drink in the Colonies. A tax on tea angered many of the Colonists. The Colonists were constantly rebelling through boycotts and smuggling materials into the Colonies. The Colonists felt that the Townshend Acts were the last straw. Men, who felt they were taxed unfairly by Great Britain, created an organization called the Sons of Liberty. This group of men helped organize many rebellions, boycotts, and helped smuggle imported tax-free materials. Leaders of the Sons of Liberty lead a group of two hundred colonists on to the East-India Company’s ships. Within four hours of being on the ships, the men had dumped over 324 barrels of tea into the Boston Harbor. This event is now known as The Boston Tea Party. At the time, the Colonists were unaware that this day would lead the Colonies, towards making the profound decision to go to war with their mother country. The Boston Tea Party caused British retribution by reducing Colonists’ resources, restructuring government, and forcing reimbursement of goods.
As a result of the Boston Tea Party, Great Britain accumulated additional debt from the revolt and imposed many ...
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... clearer to most of the Colonists that becoming independent, was the most favored choice. Thus, the Boston Tea Party lead to the most important decision the Colonists would ever make in their time period.
Works Cited
Carp, Benjamin. Defiance of the Patriots the Boston Tea Party & the Making of America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. 192-194. Print
Findling, John, and Thackeray Frank. Events that Changed America in the Eighteenth Century. WestPort, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. 82-83. Print.
Fryatt, Norma. Boston and the Tea Riots. Canada: Book Center, Inc., 1972. 96. Print.
Rakove, Jack. Revolutionaries A New History of the Invention of America. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 2010. 46. Print.
"Thomas Gage: Colonial America, 1721-1787." United States History. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Mar 2011. .
Many people believe that the Boston Tea Party arose just because of the Tea Act that came into play in 1773, but in-fact, this major statement arose from two issues surrounding the British Empire in 1765. The first of the issues was that the British East India Company was at risk of going under and the Parliament was finding ways to bring it back. The second issue was that there was a continuing dispute about the extent of the Parliament’s authority. Many colonists believe that the Parliament went overboard with their power and the people were concerned about the future. Attempting to resolve these two major issues, the North Ministry only worsened the problem and produced a showdown that would eventually result in revolution.
Many people know about the Revolutionary war and how the colonists seized their independence from the British. What most do not understand is that there was a series of events that steared the colonists onto the road to independence. They began to think for themselves and started to challenge authority. Coming to the New World, the colonists reached for power and financial opportunity when challenging authority in these three examples: the Witchcraft Trials, Bacon’s Rebellion, and the Boston Tea Party.
With out competition the East India Company had full control over the prices they set. This infuriated the Colonists. Pamphlets and protests did not seem to be cutting it anymore, so some felt like action needed to be taken. The Sons of Liberty answered the call. In an act of defiance, “a few dozen of the Sons of Liberty, opposing new British laws in the colonies, systematically dumped three shiploads of tea into Boston harbor. They acted to prevent the royal authorities from collecting taxes on that import” (Bell). This made left Parliament infuriated. They did what they only know how to do and put a tighter squeeze on the colonists. Their answer was the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts in the Colonies. The first of these acts was the Boston Port Bill. This bill shut down the Boston Harbor, the livelihood of many Bostonians. It would not re-open until the tea that was dumped could be paid off. Another one of the Intolerable Acts was the Massachusetts Government Act, in which they had to hand their government over to royal officials. Many saw this as too far or unacceptable. As shown by the statement, “Most historians agree that the Intolerable Acts were among the leading causes of the American Revolution (1775–83) as the legislation galvanized opposition to British political and economic policies in the
George Hewes’ account of the Boston Tea party is considered a firsthand account of a historically significant event. The Boston Tea party took place the night of December 16, 1773 on three ships anchored in Boston Harbor. Hewes recounts the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party, the actual attack on the ships and its aftermath. He provides descriptive narration thus contributing to the historical context surround the Tea party. This event and many others leading up to it, provide a colorful backdrop on the eve of the American Revolution.
Gordon S. Wood. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage; Reprint edition. March 2, 1993
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
Edward, Rebecca and Henretta, James and Self, Robert. America A Concise History. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
Stokesbury, James L. A short History of the American Revolution. New York. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1991.
Greene, J. P., & Pole, J. R. (Eds.). (2008). A Companion to the American Revolution (Vol. 17). John Wiley & Sons.
Ellis Starts off his book with a request to the reader to consider the American Revolution not only as how we see it today, but how it would of looked to the founders, and what actually happened. He introduces you to some of the key figures in the founding of our country and the idea that some of the founders found the successful creation of the United States as inevitable conclusion. Ellis highlights some of the dangers of what the founders did along with the improbability of the “miracle at Philadelphia”. H...
Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History.( Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),
The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation. The Tea Act was also passed by Parliament to help lower the surplus of tea that was created by the financially troubled British East India Company. The colonists responded to this act by executing the Boston Tea Party which tossed all of the tea that was imported into the port of Boston. This precipitated the Boston Port Act which did not permit the colonists to import goods through this port. The colonists protested and refused all of these acts which helped stir the feelings of rebellion among the colonists. The British Mercantilist economy prevented the colonists from coin...
The Boston tea party was a brief incident among many, composing, economic, and political crisis that ultimately caused a revolution. These events consisted of The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, the Tea Act, and of course the Boston Tea Party. The incident caused by the colonies infuriated the British government therefore as punishment parliament responded to the abuse with the Coercive Acts of 1774 . When the thirteen colonies once again decided to resist the British troops revolution spread. “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This act later on lead to the American Revolutionary War, were years later independence was
At the beginning of the war, everything was in array and no one could agree on anything, disorganization and uncertainty overwhelmed everyone. Organizations that were meant to be unifying factors for the colonists, like the Continental Congress, were little more than debating clubs that had to work for weeks before they could come to a decision. As time went on and the Tea Act was put into place the rage of the people made them grow closer. By the eve of the American Revolution, Parliament’s aggression towards the colonists had drawn a distinction between the colonist’s political, economic, and social ideas and those of the British. Colonists had embraced a new identity that helped fuel their resistance against Britain (American Identity and
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, America has taken on yet another revolution. In this time period, the country saw a rapid expansion in territory and economics, as well as the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation’s first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; a rise in abolitionism and reduction in the power of slavery; and radical shifts in the roles and status of women.