Revolution In America Essay, Research Paper
Discuss the validity of this statement
Despite the view of many historians that the conflict between Great Britain and
her thirteen North American colonies, was economic in origin, in fact the American
Revolution had its roots in politics and in other areas of American life.
.
I agree with this statement that the American Revolution had its roots politics,
economics, and in other aspects of American life. The populas of the thirteen colonies did
not find the need to stage a revolution just because of any one of these things, it took
different aspects of each, being tainted with by the British monarch and Parliment to stage
a revolution against a former motherland. As Thomas Jefferson so boldly stated in the
Declaration of Independence, “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of earth, the seperate and equal station to which the
laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Thomas Jefferson then goes on to explain the colonies grievences that come from the
of the colonies politics, economics, and way of life.
The American Revolution started when the first colonists stepped foot on
American soil, and lasted over a century and a half. Most of the people who came to
settle in the New World from England came to avoid persecution, wether it be religious,
or other. When colonists finally arrived in America after the horrid voyage from England,
they became discontented, and already felt separate from the English Government. The
young New World matured and aquired privledges of self-government, privledges that
colonies on different continents did not recieve, this was a problem from the beginning.
As Britain sees the economic success of the colonies, she begins to tighten the nuece on
the colonies by setting up a policy of mercantillism, a theory that existed in the Americas
only to help Britain financially. This was just the beginning of the laws that agitated early
America.
Britain began to place more laws on the colonies, restricting commerce, and
hurting the livlihood of early Americans. Parliment added additional laws on the colonies
normally to further extend her wealth. The colonists had restrictions on what they could
produce at home, and were forbidden to produce products that would rival English ones.
Economic initiative was stifled could not buy, sell, ship or manufacture under the most
profitable conditions at full liberty. Colonies were forced to print paper currency that,
without a bank, depreciated. This restrained colonial governments from passing
bsankruptcy laws. Americans despised mercantillism, and saw it as an insult from the
beginning.
The Stamp Act was passed by parliment to repay Britain’s huge debt after the
Seven Years War. Britain felt that the colonists should have to help pat for the cost of the
war because Britain was protecting the colonies, the colonists didn’t feel this way, and
responded with riots and the famous saying that rang out in the colonies in rhe years
before the Revolutionary War, “No taxation withuot representation.” This meant that the
the colonists felt that they should be represented in British politics if they were being
taxed. The Stamp Act is the time the causes of the Revolution went past economic, their
political rights were being enfringed, and their way of life tainted.
The Townshend Acts put more taxes on items like glass, lead, paper, and tea.
Red-blooded Americans saw these acts as another attempt to enchain the colonies. The
parliment then took the next step and suspended the legislature of New York for not
complying with the Quatering Act, which invaded the colonists homes, and wealth. Soon
after the Townshend Acts, 10 red coats fired upon a large group of people in Boston
which ended with eleven Bostonians killed or wounded.
Actions like the Boston Tea Party that were held in response to the Townshend
Acts caused Parliment to pass the Intloerable Acts. These acts posesssed a series of
Repressive Acts to punish mainly Boston for the Boston Tea Party. The most repressive
of all was the Boston Port Act, which closed all of Boston’s ports. These Intolerable Acts,
which were viewed as intolorable by the colonists, lit the match to the fire of revolution.
After the Intolerable Acts were passed, delagates from 12 of the 13 colonies met in
Philadelphia to discuss what to do. The Congress created the Association, it called for a
complete boycott of all British goods. The Continental Congress met again, this writing
the Declaration of Independence, after, in their eyes, they had been stripped of all thier
rights by Britain, and the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord. The Declaration of
Independence declared the United States of America a separate nation from Great Britain.
In conclusion, it is in my opinion that the American Revolution was caused by the
enfringement of the American way of life, which includes a government for the people, by
the people, not an all powerful monarch, free enterprise, not enterprise to benefit another
nation, and most importantly, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.