Causes of The American Revolution
1763-1776 Quincy b
The American Revolution
The American Revolution was a war between the 13 colonies and England. The tensions between the British and Americans started after they had just won the French and Indian war. King James III was almost broke after the war, and didn't want to cause anymore costly battles with the Indians/French, so he told all of the colonists that they couldn't pass the Appalachian Mountains, which was called the Proclamation of 1763. The colonists weren't very happy about this, and you can't really blame them for it. They had just won the war, and now the King wouldn't allow them to settle on the land that they had won. Later, King James III started taxing the colonists in order to regain his wealth, which is called the Stamp Act. It basically taxed anything printed on paper. Taxing everything and King James later sending soldiers to the colonies is what started the war between them.
The Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were efforts to put the theory of mercantilism into actual practice. Colonists weren't allowed to trade certain things with each other and those things were required to ship/be traded with England only. The Sugar Act meant that colonists could only buy expensive sugar from England. They didn't like this because a lot of the colonists moved to America to get away from England, and now England was charging them more for sugar, which was unfair.
The Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 said that no one was allowed to settle past the Appalachian Mountains. King James III made this because he didn't want anymore costly battles with the Indians. This angered a lot of the colonists because they had just won the land, and they wanted to settle there.
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act taxed anything printed on paper. It was created so the king could get his money back from the war. The Committees of Correspondence protested the Stamp Act by boycotting. Samuel Adams created a group called The Sons of Liberty, and basically what they did was protest against acts like this.
The Quartering Act
Britain sent more troops to keep order in the colonies. The Quartering Act required colonists to house and feed British soldiers. The colonists didn't like having a standing army of soldiers with writs of assistance, and housing and feeding them wasn't cheap. Soldiers eventually began to take some of their jobs away from them too, which led to higher tensions between England and the colonies.
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts taxed a lot of things, such as tea, glass, and paper. A group called the Daughters of Liberty decided they didn't want to follow this act. They ended up making their own cloth instead of buying British cloth in response. The British government continued to tax tea after the Townshend Acts were repealed to show who was in charge. The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, hated the taxation and usually attacked homes of British officials and tax collectors.
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a crowd of colonists shouted insults and threw snowballs at a British soldier. Later more soldiers came, and eventually a few of them fired into the crowd. Even though only a few people were killed, Samuel Adams and other colonists called it a massacre to convince everyone that the British were the enemies. John Adams chose to represent the soldiers in a trial to show that colonists value the right to a trail by jury for all citizens.
Tea Act And Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act made the British East India Company the only company allowed to sell tea to the colonies. Even though the price was lower, colonists were still unhappy with the Tea Act because they still didn't like the idea of being forced to pay import taxes to Britain. The Sons of Liberty responded to the Tea Act by illegally boarding the ships and dumped 342 crates of British tea into Boston Harbor.
The Coercive Act (Intolerable Acts)
Colonists called the Coercive Act the Intolerable Acts because almost all of them agreed that the laws were unfair. The laws in the Coercive Act stopped all trade between Boston and Britain, did not allow meetings, gave Britain control of the colony, and strengthened the Quartering Act. The colonists ended up supporting Boston and the act made them consider revolution.