The Causes of the American Revolution

Despite the Seven Years' War, Britain still retained a full dominance over the American colonies. However, they now saw the colonies as fodder to feed the raging debts of Britain. The crown's desire for money to pay the debts was viewed by Britain as reasonable, while it fueled the fire known as revolution that was stirring up in the hearts of the colonists. This would create a new sense of American political identity and would eventually lead to the American Revolution. Eventually, Britain would soon come to regret marking the spirited colonists as inferior. There were ideas that would spark the flame of revolution much before the word revolution was even spoken of. Republicanism, an idea where the citizens gave up their private needs to the common good, became quite a popular idea, as well as the idea of a strong, central, government. The ideas were just harmless thoughts at the time; it was the actions of the British government that would turn them into dangerous philosophies.

Mercantilism was by far one of the greatest sparks of the American Revolution. The British wanted to dominate the flux of imports and exports to and from the colonies, making it clear that they felt they wanted to control the economy of the colonies. To the British, the Americans were just tenants residing on their own land, meant for purposes to boost the British economy. To enhance the mercantilist system, the Parliament passed the Navigation Laws, which said all commerce flowing to and from the colonies could be transported only in British vessels. Future laws said that any European products headed for the colonies had to pass through Britain and its tariffs, which effectively gave the British middlemen a good amount of the profits. At first, the N...

... middle of paper ...

...ea tax with no objection. They wouldn't say yes to that, leading to the Boston Tea Party. The Bostonians, disguised as Indians, dumped chests of tea into the Atlantic. This seemed to them to be the perfect way to rally the colonists, since tea was like the universal beverage at the time. In retaliation to the colonists' misconduct, the Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which punished the Bostonians by doing things such as shutting down the Boston area main port, and bringing the Massachusetts Government under British control.

Overall, the Revolution was just a reaction to the unfairness that the colonists were being put through. It rose from minor skirmish, to a large-scale battle that decided the fate of the colonists and their relationships with Britain. Fortunately for the colonists, "great leadership emerged to convert the improbable into the inevitable."