Causes of the American Revolution
1763-1776
Causes of the American Revolution
King George started to tax the colonists for their goods and the colonists refused to buy certain goods that were on tax in response. The money is also a main issue as to why the American Revolution had started in the first place too. The King sent more troops and reinforcements to Boston and the people of Boston arranged a significant event in the American Revolution called the Boston Tea Party.
Navigation Acts
The colonists were only to be trading with the mother country, or Britain instead of other people who they used to trade with. This is mainly to benefit the mother country and to keep all of the benefits of trade within the Empire. The colonies could only use English ships when trading and imported goods from Asia and Africa had to arrive in England and the mother countries colonies in English ships as well.
The Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation had stated that the new land that was won from fighting the French was not to be settled on. This angered the colonists because they wanted to settle in the new land that they had just got done fighting for. King George lll wanted to avoid additional conflicts with the Native Americans to save and conserve money.
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act put a law that taxed anything that was on paper or had text on papers. The act was mainly created to pay off all of the war debts that was created from the French and Indian war and to protect the colonies. Samuel Adams and the Committees of Correspondence protested against this act by boycotting and people refused to buy certain items and goods. Eventually the king decided to repeal the Stamp Act and the colonists were no longer taxed on paper goods.
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was where the colonists had to provide shelter, food, and necessities to soldiers. There were two issues to this Act, one was that the colonists found this to be very costly, and another is that the soldiers could search the colonists houses if they felt that they had something that was not allowed which angered many of the people. The soldiers practically had blank search warrants which were also called a writs of assistance.
Townshend Act
This act taxed the colonists on tea, glass, paper, and other items to pay for the rising military costs from the Quartering Acts. A group of women called the Daughters of Liberty made their own cloth instead of buying the British cloth in response to the act. The British government repealed the act once again however, they kept a tax on tea to show that they still had the power to tax the colonists. The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams used violence and attacked homes of British Officials and tax collectors in reply of the continued taxation.
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was when the British sent more troops to Boston and there was a crowd surrounding a colonist who was arguing with a British soldier. Eventually, the crowd grew larger and more reinforcement soldiers appeared in the argument. The crowd called the soldiers names and taunted them to the point where they shot and killed five of the colonists in the crowd. Samuel Adams shared the incident and news with the people through the committees of Correspondence. Lastly, John Adams who was Samuel's cousin, later chose to represent the soldiers in the trial to show that the colonists value the right to a trial by jury for all.
Tea Act & Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act was where the colonies could only buy the from the Boston East India Company which allowed for them to have a monopoly over the tea. The colonists still had to pay for taxes which made the colonists unhappy even though the tea was cheaper than usual. The Son's of Liberty threw 342 crates of tea off of a ship while disguised as American Indians.
Coercive Act (Intolerable Acts)
The colonists called the Coercive Act the Intolerable Acts mainly the laws were so harsh. Trade was all stopped, they didn't allow town meetings, and trading between the colonies was not allowed too. The colonies responded by gaining revolutionary spirit throughout the colonies.