Causes of the American Revolution
Makena Patterson 1763-1776
Navigation Acts
In 1651, England began to put strict limits on the colonists, controlling everything from the types of vessels used two who could export what. The Navigation Acts were put in place to put the idea of mercantilism into place. Colonial trade was only to be conducted with English ships or colonial ships. Items like sugar, tobacco, and indigo could only be shipped within the empire. If there was a desitnation outside the empire, ships first had to go to England to be taxed. Colonists never really accepted the Navigation Act, and only became even more enraged by the Sugar Act in 1733. Under the Sugar Act, a duty was enforced on the importation of sugar that came from the French West Indies. In the end, the colonists were left with a bitter connotation to their mother country.
The Proclamation of 1763
The Proclomation of 1763 was issued from Britain and affected the colonists. Britain said that the colonists could not settle west of the Appalachians to avoid further costly war with native Americans. The colonists were very angry with Britain because they had just fought and died over the course of many months to acquire the land west of the Appalachians, but according to this law, could not settle west of them.
The Stamp Act
In 1765, Parliament passed a new law affecting the colonists called the Stamp Act. This act taxed anything and everything made of paper. The Stamp Act was created by England in attempt to pay back some of the debt they had acquired from the costly French and Indian war. The Committees of Correspondence protested the Stamp Act by boycotting the purchase of certain products from England. Samuel Adams and John Hancock created the Sons of Liberty to protest British policies. At the Stamp Act Congress, nine representatives from different colonies met to discuss the recent taxation act. King George III responded by repealing the Stamp Act.
The Quartering Act
After colonists protested the Stamp Act, Britain sent many more troops to the colonies to keep things in order. in 1765, Britain also passed the Quartering Act. This act required colonists to house British soldiers at their own expense, feeding them and giving them a place to stay. The soldiers also had writs of assistance, which were blank search warrant forms. With these writs of assistance, the British could search anywhere, at any time, for any reason. Colonists were very upset with this act for many reasons, but two important ones were the colonists' unsettlement with soldiers having the writs of assistance and having to house people at their own expense.
The Townshend Acts
In the year 1767, Britain passed yet another act limiting the lives of colonists. This act, named the Townshend Acts, taxed items like tea, glass, and paper. The Daughters of Liberty responded in protest to this act by making their own cloth and supplies, thus escaping taxation. Once the Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770, Britain upheld the tax on tea in order to show that Britain still had power over the colonists. The Sons of Liberty responded by attacking homes of tax collectors.
The Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a heated argument between a colonist and a British soldier became the center of people's attention, and as more and more people joined the fight, shots were fired. The first man to be hit was African American. Samuel Adams responsed to this event by using it as propaganda, while John Adams responded by defending the British, later saying he was upholding their right to a trial by jury.
The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party
In 1773, Parliament passed an act called the Tea Act. The statement said that the British East India Company was only allowed to sell tea to the colonies. The colonists were unhappy because they were forced to pay import taxes to Britian. To evade paying these taxes, merchants refused to unload the tea aboard the ships or sell the tea to anybody in the colonies. The Daughters of Liberty also contributed to this evasion by making their own tea. In December of 1773, the Sons of Liberty dressed up in Indian dress and dumped 342 crates of tea into the harbor in protest.
The Coercive Acts
The Coercive acts, passed in 1774 by the British Parliament, were by far the most strict acts passed of all. In effort to punish the colonies for their uprising against British tea companies, Britian limited Boston to Britain trade, their ability to hold town meetings, strengthened the Quartering Act, and reminded the colonists that Britain had full control of the colonies. Other colonies responded with a revolutionary spirit and resentment towards the mother country.
The American Revolution
The American Revolution was the fight between the thirteen colonies and England, the thirteen colonies fighting for their freedom from England. Some social causes of the war included constant taxes on the colonists and British presence in the colonies. There were too many taxes on the colonists, causing rage towards the mother country, I do think the colonists are justified in declaring war on England because I would definitely do the same.