Causes for the American Revolution
Why these reasons started a major war by Liam Kornacki
What had started these problems
So where we start is right after the F and I war when Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, a tax that had only affected the rich, and another act called the Navigation Act which only let the colonist trade with Britain, a true example of mercantilism. To act against the Stamp Act, a group called The Sons of Liberty started to rile up poor people to protest the British.
Sons of liberty, and Britain's response
The Sons of Liberty is an society started by Samuel Adams that tried to get the colonies to fight Britain. As a rection to the riots for the Stamp Act, the king got rid of the act entirely. After he declined the Stamp Act, he set the Townshead Act, which would tax the colonists on paper, sugar, and tea. There also was the Quartering Act, which allowed the red coats to live in peoples houses, and also required that the owners take care of the red coats while there, providing food and provisions. These acts riled up people even more, causing more riots, and basically torture for the tax collectors (the colonists tared and feathered a lot of tax collectors). In the end, the king and Parliament decided that they would leave all taxes decisions to the colonies, except a small tax for tea, to show that they were still in charge.
Townshend Act
This act put a tax on tea, sugar, paper, and glass. The colonists should have stuck with the Stamp Act. Sorry this is a little off topic but the point of mercantilism is to get money from colonies, not to make the motherland spend money to get them to pay.
Stamp Act
This act, which is the first act parliament had put on America, only taxed paper. This really only affected the rich, but bothered the poor, too, for some reason.
The Quartering Act
This act allowed soldiers/ redcoats to write their their own warrant to live in a colonist's house of choosing. This act was actually made to protect the colonist, but like everything else, it just made them mad.
Parliament
A building in London that made decisions with the king, kind of like the president and congress. This is were they made many acts and laws that are in the UK. OK lets just say it, this is congress, our ideas were not that different on government, except democracy. That's one. Anybody got another idea?
Boston
This city in Massachusetts is one most important cities in the Revolution because of its location next to the harbor and also because it is the birthplace of The Sons of Liberty, therefore the birthplace of the Revolution. This was a very bad place to be in the pro-revolutionary war. I mean, the view of the ocean was nice, but the riots, count me out!
Sons of liberty
A secret society started by Samuel Adams to fight and get the British off of American soil. Awesome! Now terrorists, I mean Patriots!
Some of the important people from this time
John Adams
A big figure during this time looking like a Loyalist for defending the red coats who participated in the Boston massacre in court. You've got a guy who is defending red coats in court, and then you've got his cousin that is taring and feathering tax collectors. Weird, right?
Samuel Adams
The person who had started The Sons of Liberty and started many Boston riots. Started the idea of American Revolution. Fun fact: this guy was a tax collector before all this. Pretty funny, right?!
King George the III
The king of England at this time, made decisions with parliament to make acts. The colonists despised this person very much. I mean, this guy wasn't great to the colonies but the colonies brought this situation out of control.
One heck of a party
To fight the taxes on tea, The Sons of Liberty decided to waste a lot of Britain's money. On December 16, 1773, The Sons of Liberty dressed up as natives and went to the Boston harbor to throw tea off of British ships. It has been said that 92,000 pounds of tea were dumped into the harbor that morning and cost Britain around $1,700,000 in tea (in today's money) and 9,659 pounds in damage. This was later named The Boston Tea Party. I've heard of an expensive party, but this is insane. To be honest, I would have taken the tea instead of throwing it into the harbor. Tea is expensive stuff.
"Dump it Off" - Boston Tea Party Song ("Shake it Off")
Britain sends punishment
After the Tea Party, British parliament decided that they would close down Boston's harbor and appoint a royal governor until the debt for the tea was paid. This caused more colonists to be angry as the only trade they could do was with the other colonies. To be honest here, the colonists deserved this. Is anybody with me? Maybe?
Boston's word gets out!
Because the ports were closed in Boston the people traded with the other colonies. The other colonies were furious and started to despise the British even more. More and more people get mad which eventually led to them attacking the British, causing the American Revolution. Yaaaay!, oh wait, to soon