The Great Awakening was a Key to the American Revolution

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The Great Awakening was a major influence on what caused and led up to the American Revolution. The colonies’ newly -formed democratic views and religious mind set were the two main factors of the Great Awakening and the colonies’ unity to start the American Revolution. The Great Awakening prepared colonists for what was to come forty years later. The Great Awakening (1735 - 1765) formed a new government for the colonists in America and beliefs of “natural rights” conquered the minds of a large percentage of the population. Britain began to set taxes on imports of goods and all paper products, and the colonists had the idea that taxing the colonies for Britain’s own profit was unjust. The new government provided a unity or “togetherness” that William G. Mcloughlin speaks of in “Enthusiasm for Liberty”. The new government the colonies had formed promoted a form of voting (for males) and people having contribution in town meetings and some decisions. Britain contradicted the colonies’ ideas of contribution when Britain passed the taxes, thus there being bitter feelings from most colonists towards the British. The government of the colonies was not established as politics alone, therefore it not being the root cause. Government itself was based on religion in the colonies and promoted by the ministers. Ministers or preachers controlled people’s emotions and influenced what the colonists believed by stating that it was God’s purpose for them to “play a role in God’s providential plan for redemption of mankind.” After 1742, many colonists were convinced that not only were they part of God’s plan, but that the colonists could not fully do God’s purpose if they were connected with Parliament because they were not godly or

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