The haphazard and disorganized British rule of the American colonies in the
decade prior to the outbreak led to the Revolutionary War. The mismanagement of
the colonies, the taxation policies that violated the colonist right’s, the
distractions of foreign wars and politics in England and mercantilist policies
that benefited the English to a much greater degree then the colonists all show
the British incompetence in their rule over the colonies. The policies and
distractions were some of the causes of the Revolutionary War.
The interests of England within the colonies were self-centered. The English
were trying to govern the colonies by using the mercantilist system.
Mercantilism is when the state directs all the economic activities within it’s
borders (Blum). England was not attempting to make any changes that would help
the colonists. They limited the colonies commerce to internal trade only
(Miller 9). The English were exploiting the colonies by demanding that the
colonies import more from England then they exported to the colonies. They were
importing raw materials from the colonies and making them into exportable goods
in England. They would then ship these goods to foreign market all around the
world including the colonists (America Online). Throughout the seventeenth
century the English saw America as a place to get materials they didn’t have at
home and a market to sell finished products after the goods had been
manufactured. This was detrimental to the colonies because it prevented them
from manufacturing any of the raw materials they produced, and made them more
dependent upon England.
In addition to the unrest caused by their mercantilist policies, domestic
political issues distracted them from the activities of the colonies.
Throughout the sixteen hundreds, Great Britain was more involved in solving the
Constitutional issue of who was to have more power in English government, the
king or parliament. When this complex issue was finally resolved in the
Glorious Revolution of 1688, England turned its attention back to the colonies
and found that colonists had developed their own identity as Americans.
There was no central office in England to control what was happening in the
colonies. The executive authority in England was divided among several
ministers and commissioners that did not act quickly or in unison. Also, the
Board of Trade, the body in England, did not have the power to make decisions
or to enforce decrees. Due to the distractions from the complex constitutional
issues and ineffective governmental organization, the colonists felt further
separated from England (Blum 51).
The political scene in England was laced with corruption. Officers of the
government sent to the colonies were often bribe-taking politicians that were
not smart enough to hold government positions in England. After Grenville and
Townshend, the most incompetent was Lord North, who became Prime Minister in
1770 after the death of Charles Townshend. “North was the kind of politician
George had been looking for, a plodding, dogged, industrious man, neither a
fool nor a genius, much like the king himself. For the next twelve years,
despite the opposition of abler men, he remained at the head of the government
(Blum 104).” Corruption and incompetence among governing politicians often made
their rule over the colonies ineffective.
In the years leading up to the final decade before the American Revolution, the
relationship between Great Britain and her colonies in North America continued
to deteriorate. Relations began to worsen with the great victory over the
French and Indians in the Seven Years War. Unwelcome British troops had
remained in the colonies. Debts from this war caused the Prime Minister at the
time, Lord Grenville, to debt that had doubled since 1754 (Blum 95).
England passed many Acts that were ill conceived and had long-term effects on
the relationship between England and the colonies. The most controversial of these
were direct taxes. The last time Parliament had tried a direct tax was as
recent as 1765, when Lord Grenville enacted the Stamp Act which forced the
colonists to pay or stamps on printed documents (Higginbotham 34). The
Americans felt the taxes of Lord Grenville were “a deliberate aim to disinherit
the colonists by denying them the rights of the English (Blum 96).” The first
of these acts were the Townsend Acts. The Townshend Acts were passed in 1767,
and placed new taxes on paper, paints, tea, lead and, glass. The new taxes
would be used to pay for British officials in the American service. These Acts
infuriated the colonists because they believed that Parliament had the right to
put taxes on the trade of the colonies, but could not place taxes directly on
the colonists to raise revenue (America Online).
The spokesperson of the colonies, John Dickinson, wrote in the “Letters of a
Pennsylvania Farmer,” on the issue of direct taxes. He distinguished between
taxes that were imposed to regulate trade, and those that were intended solely
to raise revenue. If the tax was used to promote commerce it was justifiable,
but if the tax was used only to gain revenue it was not viewed as a legitimate
tax (America Online). The colonists believed that this new tax was not
legitimate and therefore there was strong opposition to it throughout the
colonies.
By 1766 England backed off in their efforts to tax their colonies. Following a
year of opposition from the colonists England revoked the Stamp Act and the
first Quartering Act, but they still passed the Declaratory Act (History
Place). In 1766 the Declaratory Act was Passed. It was passed the same day the
Stamp Act was repealed. The Declaratory Act gave the English government total
power to pass laws to govern the colonies. The British claimed that the
colonies had always been, and should always be subject to British crown (Blum
99).
In 1773 the Tea Act was passed. The Tea Act not only put a three penny per
pound tax on tea, but it also gave the British East India Company a near
monopoly because it allowed the company to sell directly to the colonial agents
avoiding any middlemen. In Boston the colonists held a town meeting to try to
get their Tea Agents to resign. The Tea Agents would not resign and a few
months later angered Bostonians dressed as Indians boarded three tea ships and
dumped it all into Boston Harbor
(Blum 106).
In 1774 the Intolerable Acts were passed. They were passed as a way to
reprimand the Bostonians for the Boston Tea Party. This didn’t go over well in
Boston because both the innocent, and the guilty were being punished equally
(America Online). There were five Acts within the Intolerable Acts. The
Massachusetts Government Act, a new Quartering Act, the Administration of
Justice Act, the Quebec Act, and the closing of the port of Boston. The
Massachusetts Government Act said that the Governor’s council had to be
appointed by the King, and limited town meetings to one per year. The new
Quartering Act authorized the quartering of troops within a town whenever their
commanding officers thought it desirable. The Administration of Justice Act
stated the any government or customs officer convicted of murder could be tried
in England, beyond the control of local juries. The Quebec Act was not intended
to be used as a punishment of the colonists, rather to extend the boundaries of
the province of Quebec to the Ohio River, and give the Roman Catholics in that
province religious liberty, and the double protection of French and English
law. But the Quebec Act actually angered the colonists because the colonists
living in Quebec were getting right that the Americans felt were being take
away from them (Blum 106).
During these years of ineffective rule, the causes of the Revolutionary War
emerged. Laws and policies enacted were self-serving, causing the colonists to
vigorously resist try to avoid British authority. The colonists moves toward
religious and commercial self-determination were overlooked while England dealt
with the Seven years war and a domestic political crisis. All these factor
highlighted the differences and miscalculations of the British, and were the
beginnings of the Revolutionary War.