In concern to the American Revolution, there are two sides debating its primary cause. One set of historians believe the cause to be ideals and principles. The other set of historians and scholars credit economic and social interests as the primary cause of the Revolutionary War. Historians Jesse Lemisch and Dirk Hoerder used the mobs in colonial cities as evidence of the social concerns of Americans at that time. Another Historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger argued in a 1917 study “that it was the colonial merchants who were chiefly responsible for arousing American resistance to the British; and that although they spoke of principles and ideals, their real motives were economic self-interest: freedom from the restrictive policies of British mercantilism.” This argument is very concrete and is supported by the different legislation that the British Parliament passed after the Seven Years’ War. In fact, an act was passed in 1764 by the Parliament that was instrumental in specifically angering the merchants that played a major role in leading the Americans to independence. That piece of legislation was the Sugar Act which placed a tax on sugar being brought into the colonies. This tax was a significantly less than the one that was logged in the book previously; however, that tax had been ignored for years. The initial response of the merchants to this piece of legislation was anger because this new law cut off their highly profitable smuggling organizations which greatly affected their earnings. Soon after tha...
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.
What was the common good for all Americans in 1776? Thomas Paine, a political activist during America’s struggle for independence from England, argues in Common Sense, a pamphlet published in the Pennsylvania Magazine, with the American colonists, demanding a revolt with the British crown (Thomas Paine). He passionately believes that the answer to the “…benefit of all people in [American] society” (Thomas Paine) will result from the freedom of oppression for the thirteen American colonies. Common Sense, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era”, remains noted by historians as one of the most influential pieces of literature during the era of the American Revolution
Among the many complex factors that contributed to instigating the American Revolution, two stand out most clearly: England’s imposition of taxation on the colonies and the failure of the British to gain consent of those being governed, along with the military measures England took on the colonists. Adding to these aforementioned factors were the religious and political legacy of the colonies, and the restriction of civil liberties by the British. Parliamentary taxation was undoubtedly one of the greatest factors inspiring the American public to rebel in the years leading up to the American Revolution. One of the most striking examples of this kind of taxation was the Stamp Act of 1765. After many years of fighting, England badly needed revenues from their colonies, and they sought to acquire these revenues from the New World, thereby increasing their influence over the colonial governments. These theories of “New Imperialism” were what prompted Prime Minister Grenville to pass the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act of 1765 stated that persons of almost any profession were obliged to buy stamps for their documents. In other words, the act imposed a tax on every printed document in the colonies. For example, a printer had to buy stamps in order to legally be able to distribute his publications. While the act itself was not so detrimental to the economy, it was the ideals behind the act (a direct attempt on the part of the mother country to further itself and raise revenues in the colonies) which drove the revolutionaries’ cause.
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.
During the late 1700’s, rules and regulations were placed to subdue the colonies and raise money after the French-and-Indian war, as too Britain’s Seven-Year-War. In replace of the Stamp Act of 1765, a new act, under the financial leader, Charles Townshend, the Townshend Acts were added to place a tax upon certain imported goods. The Townshend Acts was implemented to raise revenue for the civil government. This act placed a tax onto glass, lead, painters, colors, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. These “external” taxes would raise 40,000 Euros to pay commissioners of customs. People argued toward the act for raising revenue, or used to pay royal officials in the colonies. Britain sent a seven-hundred pocket army to protect those customs, which angered the colonists. Later, the Massachusetts legislature wrote the Circular Letter to send to Britain, issuing that one cannot be taxed without direct representation. Adding on to the Townshend Acts’ mayhem was the ...
There is a problem in the United States that is growing and is causing issues in our country, but not everybody knows about it. The problem is the distribution of wealth in our society and the world as a whole, and how it is getting worse. Some people would say that it is an inequality due to the needs of the society, while others would say it is to the needs or individuals. This causes even more problems because of there being more than one supposed reason for the issue at hand. The problem is that the distribution of power is possibly starting to be lopsided, and for many reasons. There are two main views of why this is happening, the functionalist perspective and the conflict perspective, and they differ in many ways on what is wrong, why it is wrong and what to do about it.
After the Great War for Empire, the British parliament began carrying out taxes on the colonists to help pay for the war. It was not long from the war that salutary neglect was brought on the colonies for an amount of time that gave the colonists a sense of independence and identity. A farmer had even wrote once: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (Doc H). They recognized themselves as different than the British, so when parliament began passing bills to tax without representation there was an outcry of mistreatment. Edmund Burke, a man from parliament, sympathized with the colonists: “Govern America as you govern an English town which happens not to be represented in Parl...
The American revolution all started out with disagreements between the colonists and the British. After the French and Indian war, the colonists began to become taxed due to the money which the King had lost. The King had bought expensive supplies for the army and for the colonies which they had stayed in for protection once the war was over. The colonists knew it was unfair to be taxed without getting a say in what happens in the British parliament. This is where the famous saying, "No taxation without representation," had come from. Britain however still continued to tax the American colonists, because it was there only other way for money to recover from war. The British passed the Stamp Act, which put a price on simple things, such as
In the Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, Edmund Morgan, the author, examines the basis for the colonist’s frustrations to try and form an explanation for why the American Revolution occurred. Specifically, he examines the colonist’s struggles with Parliament and the taxes that were imposed on common people and merchants. The colonists did not get angry over the fact of the British taxing them, it was on the grounds that the British were taxing them without allowing them a say in Parliament. They wanted to be seen as equals to the people back at in the Old World. If they were to live under the crown then they should be treated as those living back in Europe. “Britons were taxed only by consent; therefore Americans must be. Britons had a right to be represented in their own legislative body; therefore Americans should have such a right and their assemblies be coordinated with Parliament.” Morgan took the position that the American Revolution occurred because the colonists were searching for equal representation in Parliament, equal liberty, and the ability to
The most fundamental reason for the American Revolution was the colonist’s outrage over taxation which led to a tax revolt launched by people who were tired of the burden of paying unfair taxes. The king placed taxes known as Townsend Acts, on the colonist’s tea, paper, paint, lead, glass, and many other items that were used daily and the colonists were against this taxing. The purpose of the Townsend Acts was to help pay the cost of government in America. Lawyer James Otis and other colonist rebels referred to King George as a tyrant. As stated by James Otis in The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1763), . . . “The very act of taxing exercised over those who are not represented appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and if continued seems to be in effect and entire
During 1776, the United States was at war to gain its own independence from the hands of the tyrant King George III and his kingdom. As the fightt continued, the spirits of the U.S. soldiers began to die out as the nightmares of winter crawled across the land. Thomas Paine, a journalist, hoped to encourage the soldiers back into the fight through one of his sixteen pamphlets, “The American Crisis (No.1)”. In order to rebuild the hopes of the downhearted soldiers, Thomas Paine establishes himself as a reliable figure, enrages them with the crimes of the British crown, and, most importantly evokes a sense of culpability.
A new era was dawning on the American colonies and its mother country Britain, an era of revolution. The American colonists were subjected to many cruel acts of the British Parliament in order to benefit England itself. These British policies were forcing the Americans to rebellious feelings as their rights were constantly being violated by the British Crown. The colonies wanted to have an independent government and economy so they could create their own laws and stipulations. 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.
England was a country that colonized many other countries and kept them under their rule. The government of England made sure that the citizens of the colonies did not have the same rights as the citizens of England. There was a conflict between the American colonies and the England government which was, as a result, the tension between the British need for income to finance the war that took place in the early 1700s and the Americans on the other hand had a desire for independence . The British government, therefore, imposed taxes on the colonists and strived to have them under their grip. This essay seeks to analyze the
From its earliest settlement in the early 1600s by small groups of British individuals to the conclusion of the American Revolution, when some five million people were poised to sprawl across a continent, British America had a dual economy. On the one hand, it was a colonial economy that depended on its ability to export commodities to the home country of England, the other colonies of the Western Hemisphere, and the eager buyers from foreign empires. Exporting, in turn, fostered deepening networks of credit, ability to import necessary and desirable goods from other sources, and systems of payment throughout the Atlantic world. On the other hand, British Americans developed a thriving internal economy in which they cleared land, grew much