Causes of the American revolution
Sydney Morriss 1763-1776
The Navigation Act
The navigation act is what set mercantilism into stone. The colonist could only trade certain items with Britian and could only use English ships to trade. Also if the colonist wanted to trade with other places the goods had to go through England first.
This upset the colonist especially when England passed the sugar act, only letting the rum and alcohol makers in the colonies buy sugar from England. This upset he colonist very much that they then began smuggled no different goods in and out of the country so they could make a profit with their trade.
Proclamation of 1763
After the very costly French and Indian war, king George the 3rd passed the proclamation of 1763. This said that the colonist could not sellte in the fertile lands of the Ohio river valley. King George did this so thT the colonist didn't create more conflict that would result in another war because the French and Indian war was very costly. The colonist became very angry with this, as this would be something that would pitch in to their revolutionary thoughts.
The stamp act
French and Indian war England began taxing the colonist more. One of the first examples of this is the stamp act. The stamp act was a tax on all paper goods. The colonist were fruited and rebellion groups were created. One of the most famous were the sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams. The sons of Liberty would terrorize the colonist loyal to great Britian and the tax collectors. They were the first example of a terrorist group in the colonies.becuse of the reaction of the colonist, leaders from nine of the colonies joined together to form the stamp act congress.rhe stamp act congress wanted to settles the taxes peacefully, so they wrote a letter to the king who repealed the act.
The Quartering act
After the stamp act, England sent more troops of soldiers. this was in response to the letter the stamp act congress sent to king George the third. The quartering act forced all colonist to house, feed, and clothe the soldiers. the colonist were not happy with this because it cost them money to do these things. Also the soldiers had a thing call the writs of assistance, which was basically a blank search warrant to let them search any colonist' belongings for smuggled goods.
Townshend Acts
The Townshend acts taxed more common household items such as glass, tea, cloth, and other things. One group of protestors called the daughters of Liberty began to make their own cloth so they didn't have to be taxed of buy it from England. In result the British government revealed the act but still taxed tea so they could still remain in power and monopolize the colonies. But there were still tensions, the sons of Liberty went and attacked many of the tax collectors homes and terrorized their families.
Boston Massacre
On March 5th, 1770 a group of British soldiers and protestors got into a violent argument. This argument would result in the death of five colonist. After the argument escalated into an all out brawl the soldiers fired into the crown and killed five colonist. After the massacre Samuel Adams leader of the sons of Liberty used the Boston massacre as an example of the British terror and used it to promote his propaganda. But his brother John Adams defended the soldiers and let them have their rights such as due process.
Tea Act and Boston Tea Party
As a result of previous event the British created the tea act. This act allowed the colonist to only but from the British east Indi company. Even though this made the price of tea lower the colonist wanted nothing to do with paying import taxes to Britian. Soon after, the sons of Liberty dressed up as Indians and dumped around 46 tons of tea overboard into the Boston harbor.
Coercive act (Intolerable Acts)
The last act that the British government passed was called the coercive act, or known as to the colonist by the intolerable acts. These laws shut down the port of Boston and stopped all trade between Boston and Britian. They stopped all town meetings which gave Britian more control of the colony and enforced the quartering act. Since the port of Boston was closed the led Boston to depend more on the other colonies surrounding it. When finally engaged with each other, revolutionary spirit and thoughts stirred through the colonies.
American Revolution
All of these events are what led up to the American Revolution and our Declaration of Independence. The sons of Liberty were a large contributing factor to the Revolution. The Revolution was all caused by the very costly French and Indian war that cause the British to tax the colonist. Just think if the colonist weren't so selfish with their money to pay for the war they caused, this all could have been avoided.