Revolutionary War Dbq

One of the greatest political and power shifts of the second century happened in North America in the middle 1700’s. Spawned out of the American Revolution’s ideals, the world’s idea of political leadership began to shift from monarchies to democracies and republics. Although the war in it of itself and the political ramifications of it have been studied extensively. Like many topics, the causes and reasons for the war and the ideas born from it are not always as examined. This essay will scratch the surface of some of the more important causes leading up to the war. But first a little background, in the 1750’s the British government took on a lot of debt to fight the French/Indian War in the Americas and believed the colonists should help

6 Lecture, Pg 9-10). Before this point all taxes on the American colonies were taxed externally via exports/imports taxes (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 14). However, these taxes were rarely paid and made less money for the Government then they paid the tax collectors (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 10). Furthermore, through the 1760’s King George III, The British Parliament, and the American colonists will make a series of poor choices that will eventually lead to The Revolutionary War. The most important of those poor choices that lead to The Revolutionary War is the passing of The Stamp Act, The Boston Massacre, and The Boston Tea Party.
The first of those poor choices was The Stamp Act which was the most important Act passed because it directly leads to one of the main issues that argued about leading up to the revolution, which was the idea that there should be no taxation without representation. Why did this become a huge

To give some background, in 1772 Lord North was able to get parliament to remove all duties besides those on tea to try to foster peace after the Boston Massacre (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 222). Following the repeal, the colonists still smuggled Dutch tea into the colonies. To make it easier to follow the law Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773 which made the tea tax even lower (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 23). That was met with the colonists believing the conspiracy theory that this new legislation was just a way for Parliament to get them used to buying taxed goods. After weeks of tension between the two sides, 100 men in Boston decided to board tea ships, that hadn’t unloaded their cargo due to the tensions, and throw the tea overboard into the harbor (Ch. 6 Lecture, Pg 24). The King and Parliament were furious after everything they had done to make it easier on the colonists and this is how they repay them. This had to have been the last straw for Parliament. Even John Adams knew this would be meet with punishments when he wrote in his diary “This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences.” (Roark, pg. 155). Indeed, the Boston Tea Party was met with quick and forceful punishment in the passing of the Coercive