|
American Revolution |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
The American Revolution occurred because of Great Britain\'s failure to adjust
to conditions brought on by the growth and development of the colonies, and by
the aggravation of a breakdown in the political and economic harmony that
existed between the colonies and their mother country.
America was a revolution force from the day of its discovery. The American
Revolution was not the same thing as the American War of Independence. The war
itself lasted only eight years, but the Revolution lasted over a century and a
half and begun when the first permanent English settlers set foot on the new
continent. Insurrection of thought usually precedes insurrection of deed. Over
the years such ferment had occurred in the thinking of the colonists that the
Revolution was partially completed in their minds before the first shot was
fire or musketball began to fly.
The American Revolution had its beginnings in the French and Indian war. For
seven years, Britain battled the French and Indian nations in the colonies.
Where the colonies militia fought beside the troops of the British army and learned
war first hand. After winning the war, Britain had a huge debt to pay. To pay
these expenses, George Grenville, who was secretary of Treasury in England,
came up with a plan. He reasoned that the debt should be paid by taxing the
colonies. After all the war had been fought to protect their land, that is the
land of the Ohio River Valley.
However, even before the French and Indian War had ended the political harmony
that was once between the colonies and the British was already being broken
down, due to all of the new acts that were passed in accordance with the
mercantile theory of economics. This theory of economics said that colonies are
only here to serve and glorify their mother country, in this case Britain. This
lead to Britain\'s passing of the Navigation Laws. These laws mandated that all
goods from the colonies had to be carried by British ships, thus making British
merchants rich and important because everybody wanted goods form the New World
and now they would have to go threw Britain to get them. The Navigational Acts
were tolerated to a certain extent but also disobeyed by the common people when
necessary. In 1763, the Seven-Year War in Europe and the French and Indian War
in the colonies was over, and with the end came a British debt of over 140
million pounds. This debt caused the Navigational Act to be enforced upon the
colonies in order to pay the debt, with many more acts were to follow.
The first such act was the Proclamation of 1763. This inhibited the colonists
from crossing the Appalachian Mountains for hunting or farming. Britain
instilled this proclamation in order to cut the area Britain had to guard with
soldiers and to prevent other bloody, and costly, battles like those of the
French and Indian War. The colonists, however, took this as a way the English
were controlling them and making them subservient to English authority, so they
defied this proclamation and clogged the westward trails. Even though Britain
was only trying to save money to pay their debt, the colonist had the perception
that Britain was trying to starve them and prevent them from growing
economically. This was the first example that the colonies\' perception of the
actions of their mother country, Britain, was more important than the reality
of those actions.
Britain followed the Proclamation with a series of taxes on certain items. The
first of which was the Sugar Act of 1764. This increased the duty on foreign
sugar import from the West Indies. Such acts as the Quartering Act of 1765 and
Stamp Act of 1765 where the real uproar of the colonist was heard followed.
The Stamp Act was the most ominous measure of all. A stamp tax to raise
revenues to support the new military fleet. This act required the use of
stamped paper or the affixing of stamps, certifying payment of taxes. Involved
were such things as playing cards and marriage licenses, plus other commercial
and legal documents. This enraged the colonists into forming protests groups
between the states called the Stamp Act Congress. This was the first time all
the states began to work together for a common goal. This would prove to be an
important beginning, because events such as the Continental Congresses were to
follow.
However, one if the largest differences of opinion came with the colonies\'
perception of \"taxation without representation\". From the
colonies\' point of view, it was impossible to consider themselves represented
in Parliament unless they actually elected members to the House of Commons. But
this idea conflicted with the English principle of \"virtual
representation,\" according to which each member of Parliament represented
the interests of the whole country, even the empire, despite the fact that his
electoral base consisted of only a tiny minority of property owners from a given
district. The rest of the community was seen to be \"represented\" on
the ground that all inhabitants shared the same interests as the property
owners who elected members of Parliament. Most British officials held that
Parliament was an imperial body representing and exercising the same authority
over the colonies as over the homeland. The American leaders argued that no
\"imperial\" Parliament existed; their only legal relations were with
the Crown. However, British merchants also felt the effects of the American boycott,
and threw their weight behind a repeal movement, and in 1766 Parliament
yielded, repealing the Stamp Act and modifying the Sugar Act.
After that, Britain again passed yet another act. This one a tax on sugar, tea,
plastics, and other things called the Townshend Acts. This tax was the worst
yet because it created funds to pay the salaries of royal judges and governors
in America. The people in America again protested, and the British again
repealed the act except for the duty on tea. This was expectable to most
colonists because most of them drank smuggled tea anyway. The trouble began
when Britain granted a monopoly to the British East India Company to sell tea
to the colonies. This was done to help this ailing company, because if it went
under the London government would lose heavily in tax revenue. However, the
perception of the colonists was that the British were trying to force them to
drink the tea from their company. This again angered the colonists, who were
getting paranoid of a domineering Britain. A famous protest was organized where
a protest group called the Sons of Liberty dressed as Indians and threw tea off
a British ship. This came to be known as the Boston Tea Party.
After the Boston Tea Party, Britain was sick of America\'s protest. They began
to send soldiers to Boston to take control of the situation. They also
reaffirmed their power by passing an Act which said that parliament had
complete power over the colonies. They also passed a Quartering Act, in order
to house soldiers in Boston\'s civilian homes. This new found military presence
angered the colonists. One night, an angry mob began throwing snowballs at some
soldiers. Confusion set in and the British fired and killed 5 Bostonians. This
became known as the Boston Massacre, and from then on the British were then
printed in the American mind as ruthless tyrants and savages.
After the Boston Massacre, Britain passed the Coercive Acts (called the
Intolerable Acts in America) and along with this was a new Quartering Act and
the Boston Port Act. Where they closed the Boston port until the damages of the
Boston Tea Party were paid off. These acts made Boston a military district
ruled by the English General Gage. The British thought that the other colonies
would stay out of this situation, but they were wrong. The other colonies
formed into a body called the Continental Congress, which was an extra legal
body, which was elected to organize boycotts and oppose British rule.
The British now targeted the two people that had begun the revolution, Samuel
Adams and John Hancock. These two were of the first to represent the two
classes fighting this war. Samuel Adams was the leader of a common protest
group called the Sons of Liberty. Adams represented the poor and common people
who were fighting the British system of mercantilism, which was starving them
because of a lack of goods and crops. He followed the profound thought of Adam
Smith, the \"Father of Modern Economics\" also attacked mercantilism
in 1766. Smith, \"To prohibit a great people, however, from making all
that they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their stock
and industry in a way that they judge most advantages to themselves, is a
manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind.\"
While John Hancock, who was a smuggler in Boston represented the rich, who
opposed the British because of the annoying taxation. Who wrote such things as
the Declaration of Independence and \"Common Sense\", being a
pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that advocated America\'s complete
independence from Britain. It followed the natural rights tenets of the British
philosopher John Locke, whose writings had justified independence as the will
of the people and revolution as a device for bringing happiness. Although the
arguments were not original with Paine, Paine\'s passionate language and direct
appeal to the people prepared them for the ideas expressed in the Declaration
of Independence. Fighting with Britain had been under way for some nine months
before publication of the pamphlet, but the political direction of the
revolution was not yet clear. For many, \"Common Sense\" crystallized
the revolution\'s goals.
Even with all of this, the major point in the road to the Revolutionary War is
when the colonies united for the first and second Continental Congresses. On
September 5, 1774, every colony but Georgia sent representatives to what is now
being called the First Continental Congress. They met in secret because they
did not want the British to know that they, the colonies, were uniting. At
first there were 44 delegates who met in Carpenter\'s Hall in Philadelphia,
twelve other delegates reported late. Some of those who came were George
Washington, Patrick Henry, John Jay, John Adams, and Samuel Adams. Peyton
Randolph of Virginia was chosen president, as the first Continental Congress
became a school for American leaders. This was like a school for American
leaders. They made a list of basic rights they wanted and a list of complaints
to send to King George III. They signed a petition demanding the
\"Intolerable Acts\" be repealed and sent it to England. The
Continental Association was also created, this was an agreement of the colonies
to stop all trade with Britain until their demands were met. The men adjourned the
Congress on October 26, 1774 and decided to meet again in May of 1775 in
Philadelphia if King George III did not repeal the \"Intolerable
Acts.\"
On May 5, 1775 the Second Continental Congress met as agreed. There were mixed
feelings about what should be done about the continued hostile acts of the
British Parliament. Some delegates wanted immediate independence no matter what
the cost. Others were still loyal to King George III and even though they did
not like the British taxation without representation. They wanted to avoid an
all-out war with England. Finally, they decided to go slowly and not make any
drastic moves that might start a major war. However, on the other hand, they
also felt they needed to protect themselves, so they established the
Continental Army and named George Washington as Commander-in-Chief. They also
passed a \"Declaration of Causes of Taking up Arms,\" which named
England as an aggressor and gave the Colonists the right to take up arms
against the British.
After King George III officially called the Colonies in rebellion, which was
after Thomas Paine\'s \"Common Sense\" was circulated and read, the
Patriots realized there was no way to solve the problems peacefully. They
decided to declare independence and they drafted the Declaration of Independence,
which was adopted and ratified on July 4, 1776.
This was the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, in it\'s major
points. Both Britain and the American Colonies had their faults in this matter,
however most of the problem resided in the fact that the colonies\' perceptions
of the British actions were not the reality of the British actions. Therefore
in fighting these actions the American Colonies eventual lead themselves to the
signing of the Declaration of Independence and into the American Revolutionary
War.
~sparknotes.com