Parliament tried to establish power in the New World by issuing a series of laws. The passage of these laws undermined the Colonist’s loyalty to Britain and stirred the Americans to fight for their freedom. The colonies also accepted England’s right to monitor trade. The change of course in 1767 was what really riled the colonies. England began to slowly tighten its imperial grip to avoid a large reaction from the colonists.
The act was passed by Britain parliament and it was to affect all Britain colonies. The essay will give insight of the degree of oppression of the Act to colonies, the radical responses, and American Revolutionary acts that are implicit against the Stamp Act. Oppressiveness of the Stamp Act In 1764, the Sugar Act was enacted, putting a high duty on refined sugar. Even though silent, the Sugar Act tax was hidden in the cost of import duties making most colonists to accepted it. The Stamp Act, however, was a direct tax on the colonists and led to an uproar in America over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution tool to oppose taxation without representation.
This act sought harsher punishment for smugglers. The next act to be passed was possibly the most controversial act passed by Britain. The Stamp Act passed in 1765 affected every colonist because it required all printed documents to have a stamp purchased from the British authority. The colonist boycotted British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed but quickly replaced by the Declaratory Act in 1766. The British still held onto the conviction that they had the right to tax the Americans in any way they deemed necessary.
Several acts of protests, such as the Boston Tea Party, made the British king “furious” (Raatma 10). As a response to these protests, the king sent more soldiers and made stricter laws, which only made colonists even more upset. The back and forth tension between the colonists and the British government was the reason why the Battle of Lexington and Concord occurred, and in turn, why the American Revolution began. The American Revolution caught attention from the entire world, giving the nickname to the first shot fired the “shot heard ‘round the world” (Raatma 5). The 13 colonies who were weak economically and militarily, were taking on Great Britain, a world power with a strong military, a situation which naturally other countries wanted to see.
The American Revolution began in seventeen seventy-five and featured the colonists rebelling against England for their freedom and independence. The revolutionary war was not one without reason; for, there were multiple accounts that led up to the gruesome years that followed the beginning of the American Revolution. Initially, the concern over taxation was the starting off what is known as the American Revolution. The concept was simple. American colonists were angered by the taxes the King had imposed upon them.
The thirteen colonies that became the United States of America were originally colonies of Great Britain. By the time the American Revolution took place, the citizens of these colonies were beginning to get tired of the British rule. Rebellion and discontent were rampant. The main reason the colonies started rebelling against "mother England" was the taxation issue. The colonies debated England’s legal power to tax them and they did not wish to be taxed without representation.
A revolution is defined as being a generally violent attempt by many people to end one rule of governing, and to create their own (Websters Dictionary). The founding of our own independent country is based on such a notion, with our forefathers fighting to gain their freedom from the oppressive rule of Colonial England. With rampant fears of tyranny from a country deemed a super power, the American people were divided in their views of creating their own government, making the definition of a revolution all the more difficult. The years 1775 to 1785 in American history were enormously fundamental to the founding of the United States. From the famous Battles of Lexington and Concord which started the war with England, to the drafting of our own Declaration of Independence from which the United States of America was born, the victorious battles fought against the Redcoats, and to the Treaty of Paris.
Many revolutions begin with the outbreak of violence, which is often a response to heightened repression or other extraordinary demands from government against their people. The American Revolution is an obvious example of this. The violence took the form of the Revolutionary War and Congress became the leadership. American Revolution was the first anti-colonial, democratic revolution in history. Americans insisted on representation and when the British denied it, they fought their colonizers.
This crisis had many events/consequences that became more aggressive as the years passed and as the acts got more unfair. 1 Some of these acts included the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act, the Townshend Duties, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts. These acts all had different goals, but were all extremely unfair to the colonists. The Sugar Act, also known as the Revenue Act, was passed by parliament in 1764. This act’s goals were to make custom regulations more strict and laid new taxes on foreign items that were imported into America, to the colonies.
The idea of wanting its independence from Britain was forced upon them after the French and Indian War when Americans felt that they were receiving unfair treatment from Great Britain. The French and Indian War altered British and American relations by changing the colonist's beliefs in having the need for British control, and these events brought American colonies together for the first time politically. Economically, the British made relations harsh by enforcing things such as the Stamp Act which made many of the colonist's unhappy. The ideological viewpoint of the American colonist's drastically changed with the opposing viewpoints of the British. American colonists questioned many of Britain's laws and beliefs after the French and Indian War.