The Spark

The first major cause of the American Revolution was the French and Indian War, a long and brutal crusade that expelled the French from all of their American territory. The most negative outcome of this war was the arrears factor: once Britain came out victorious, they realized that they were deeply in debt, and thus they commanded the colonists to indirectly pay them for what they had lost. For example, unnecessary taxes were levied almost immediately without the colonists’ assent. As mentioned in Theodore Draper’s notions about the American Revolution, the colonists did not agree with this, but to prevent unnecessary violence, their only option was to comply, as the colonies were proud to be British. However, the colonies were still outraged and could not stand being taxed for things that had previously been free of charge, so they organized a sanction of British goods, only to fail after a short period of time.

The American Revolution was an inevitable conflict. The French and Indian War had major effects on the British and American colonists. This war doubled England’s already existent debt. America’s little financial and military help outraged many British officals during the war, which largely benefited the Americas. They were also bitter about the Colonists trading goods with enemies of the British.

In 1763 King George III created something known as "The Proclamation of 1763". The Proclamation of 1763 restricted the colonists in the English colonies from moving westward into the lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. It also forced those who had already settled west of the Appalachians to go back to the eastern side. King George III made this law because he wished to keep peace with the Natives and keep the taxpayers paying taxes. He succeeded partially, but he also managed to confuse and upset a large amount of the colonists.

Between 1763 and 1775, the British attempted to exert control over the colonies. Since they had become accustomed to their mother country’s salutary neglect, Britain trying to prevent them from flourishing angered the colonists. Although the colonists were determined to separate from Britain, the American Revolution was mainly caused by British “missteps” including taxation, troop placement, and Mercantilism. The colonists did want to separate from Britain because of how unfairly they were being treated, but at heart most of them still felt a strong bond to their home land. Therefore, their resistance was a direct result of Britain’s errors.

The colonists were viewing the new taxes as ways for Britain to slowly become a dictatorship. This made the Americans upset, because they viewed their society as something that was growing and was able to rule over themselves. This assumption caused considerable amounts of turmoil and defiance amongst the colonists. The rebellion continued after the war, with the colonial resistance to pay the taxes that were directly applied to them. Britain was beginning to realize the rebellion they were facing in the colonies.

The Townsend Act was put in affect to collect duties on colonial imports of glass, red and white lead, paints, paper, and tea. Both the Stamp and Townsend Acts were imposed to help pay for the costs of British soldiers living in America, and to protect the American colonies. Also, trading restrictions enforced by Britain angered the colonist. The British basically wanted, and tried, to have a mercantilist economy in Amemercantilismmentalist discouraged any trading between the colonist, and any other country other than Britain. The colonist did not really care about most of the British rules, and they again were able to overturn the rules once again.

The primary cause of the war with Britain was the fact the neutral shipping rights were violated by Britain, and though France had also violated these rights, there were other issues that the British were responsible for. Britain blockaded the United States in such a manner it was no longer possible to export goods by ship. The British were not doing this to harm America's economy, however it was extremely harmful to the economy of this young country. Britain was doing this so that France could not import as many goods that would behoove them in the war. France desperately needed various goods that could be imported from the United States and they were willing to pay where America's economy could have benefited tremendously.

The British imperial policies affected the colonies economic, political, and geographic situation which intensified colonists’ resistance to British rule and intensified commitment to their republican values. The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation.

Following the long and harrowing French and Indian War, Britain was deep in debt and George Grenville was appointed British Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was determined to pay off the debt by taxing the colonies. He not only reinforced the ignored Navigation Acts, but he placed the new Sugar Act which was similar to the Molasses Act which put a tax on rum and molasses imported from West Indies, but this Act would be enforced. Needless to say, the colonists were not used to this intrusion of Parliament and felt that it was wrong because there were no members in Parliament to represent the colonies. They felt it was a direct violation of their civil liberties and resentment was beginning to spawn.

The Revolutionary War is also known as the American Revolution and the U.S War of Independence. The war was between Britain and the 13 American colonies. When the British and colonists fought together in the seven years war against the French they were deeply in debt. Due to the debt the British began taxing the colonists to get out of debt. After being under British control the people of the 13 colonies of America became frustrated with the taxes Britain forced and thought it was unfair for them to have to pay tax on products they produced themselves such as tea and stamps.