First of all, each of the different colonies’ founders all expressed sentiments to establish a solid and uncorrupt government. One that would honor God. This government would be made up of a Governor, and a general Assembly and/or provincial Council where most political and judicial decisions would be made and agreed on together. In the Mayflower Compact, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, men were given the right to vote and choose the officials and representatives who would have a place in the government. These first colonies also promised the people that justice would be restored, it would not be sold, or withheld.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
When settlers from England came to America, they envisioned a Utopia, where they would have a say in what the government can and cannot do. Before they could live in such a society they would have to take many small steps to break the hold England had on them. The settlers of America had to end a monarchy and start their own, unique, form of government. They also had to find a way that they would have some kind of decision making power. The most important change that the colonies in America had to make was to become a society quite different from that in England.
In a similar economic revolution, the colonies outgrew their mercantile relationship with the mother country and developed an expanding capitalist system of their own. In England, the common view was that the colonies only purpose was to compliment and support the homeland. This resulted in a series of laws and protocols called th...
In this political philosophy the colonies had originally made a charter with the king who set a custom that he was to provide for the defense of the colonially while each colony maintained the right to legislative self-rule. Jefferson would state, “the addition of new states to the British Empire has produced an addition of new, and sometimes opposite interests. It is now therefore, the great office of his majesty to resume the exercise of his negative power, and to prevent the passage of laws by any one legislature of the empire, which might bear injuriously on the right and interest of another” (A Warning to the King: Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British-America”, Green, p. 234). In other words, for Americans to preserve the true ancient British constitution, it was vital to establish that parliament did not have authority over them, because they could never be required to give up actual popular consent or governance in the British Parliament. Thomas Hutchinson stated this idea clear, “The king might retain the executive power and also his share of the legislative without any abridgement of our rights as Englishmen, the Parliament could not retain their legislative power without depriving them of those rights, for after removal they could no longer be represented, and their sovereign, sensible of this charter or commissions made provision in every colon for legislature
When all things are considered, one can see the colonies didn't always agree with the way England handled things, in the area of religion, economics, politics, and social structure. Through their determination to obtain a better life for themselves, they ventured away from England and created their own nation over time.
The Early British colonies in America were founded and developed by people with different ideas and beliefs. Through their development they enjoyed freedoms and opportunities that would not of been available in England. When colonies felt these freedoms were infringed upon they resisted against British rule, ultimately realized the best way to resist was to do so cooperatively.
America’s history changed when the 13 colonies decided to become independent from Great Britain. Many incidents took place for America to achieve its independence from Great Britain. A revolution had to occur before Great Britain saw that its power over America was no longer accepted. The people in America suffered because of the way parliament was applying its laws and taxation over the colonies. The colonists had to make a choice to live in a society where the King could decide their future without knowing their issues, or to represent themselves as an independent colony and release their ties from Great Britain. There were three major causes of action in history that lead America toward revolution and independence against Great Britain. These were the Stamp Act, the Coercive Act, and the pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
“ No taxation without representation!” a group of colonists shouted as they roamed the streets surrounded by armed, red-coated British soldiers. Around the 1760’s, turmoil between the 13 colonies and Britain began. Britain no longer gave them their rights, respected the amount of time between taxations, or gave them a say in any law that applied to them. Although there are reasonable things that Britain did, American colonists were justified in waging war and breaking away. If Britain was going to bombard them with taxation and laws in the span of a few short years or not present them with a representative in Parliament, then the colonists had every right to become their own self governing country.
Prior to the British Colonies declaring their independence from the British rule, the English colonization was more or less an extension of the “European’ nation to expand markets and trade. The British Empire in America was at first a small and weak society however, the civilization of the colonist had transformed into a “large complex society.” A very distinct society had developed in the colonies, they had begun to grow apart from the British Empire. The colonist had engaged in colonial self-rule: governed themselves. However, one contributing factor t...
Because of several acts that Parliament had issued during the 1760s almost every colonist became frustrated and upset with the new approach the British government had taken towards governing their colonies. E...
...olonists’ needs so the colonists began to gain confidence in a governmental system that did not rely on a king.
Without colonial consent, the British started their bid to raise revenue with the Sugar Act of 1764 which increased duties colonists would have to pay on imports into America. When the Sugar Act failed, the Stamp Act of 1765 which required a stamp to be purchased with colonial products was enacted. This act angered the colonists to no limit and with these acts, the British Empire poked at the up to now very civil colonists. The passing of the oppressive Intolerable Acts that took away the colonists’ right to elected officials and Townshend Acts which taxed imports and allowed British troops without warrants to search colonist ships received a more aggravated response from the colonist that would end in a Revolution.
Even though the colonists resisted the Sugar Act, Britain issued another tax, the Stamp Act in March of 1765. The Stamp Act placed taxes on all legal documents from newspapers, pamphlets, licenses, legal documents and even playing...
This document defines independence because it states the terms on why the colonies need to be free from the control of the king. The co...