FREE ESSAY ON CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

CHAPTER 2, Q1: What are the decisive events and arguments that produced the American
Revolution?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (Charles Dickens). This best
describes the Americas in the 1700's. The settler's went through the best of times from
obtaining religious freedom, to becoming prosperous merchants, and finally to
establishing a more democratic government. However, it was the worst of times in the
sense that the settlers in the America's were taken advantage of my their mother country,
England. The hatred of being under another's control was one of the main reason's that
led to the American Revolution. 
In the 1600's, England began to colonize America. King James I had urged those against
the Church of England, such as the Puritans, to settle in America. Many settlers came to
America to obtain religious freedom. Merchants settle din America to profit off the land
since land was free or cheap at the time. Settling in America gave people hopes and
dreams that they can do something with their lives. Even indentured servants had the hope
of someday owning land as soon as they were done with their service. It was unlikely but
they had hope. 
The Atlantic Ocean made communications hard between England and the colonies. Because of
the difficulties in communication, the colonists developed an independent spirit. Harvard
College allowed most Americans to read protests against British injustice printed in
papers, pamphlets, and books. The college provided education and writings of Greek
philosophers such at John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The ideas of these Greek
philosophers that men were created equal dwelled in these colonists mind. 
England expected the American Colonies to serve it's economic interests, and it regulated
colonial trade. In general, the colonists accepted British regulations. For example, they
agreed not to manufacture goods that would compete with British products. Things began to
change in the 1700's.
England had largely neglected the administration of the American Colonies while it fought
France in a series of wars during the 1700's. But after the French and Indian War ended,
the British government sought to tighten it's control over the colonies in fear that the
colonies have gotten too powerful. The treaty of 1763 ending this war made England master
of Canada and of the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
The chief motive had been nation advantage: but as one of the results the 13 colonies
might now live in peace. George Grenville, Britain's prime minister in 1763, did not
concede that the colonists had any political rights. He now sough ways to make the
colonies most profitable to England at the least expense. 
Settlers were pouring into the Ohio Valley, and land speculators were busy with schemes
for opening the country won at so great a sacrifice from the French. Such activity
excited the worst fears of the Indians. That year, a great chieftain, Pontiac united the
tribes and led them in a series of destructive raids on the advancing frontier. Britain
feared a long and bloody Indian war, which it could not afford. To quiet the Indians,
England issued the Proclamation of 1763. This decree prohibited settlers from buying
lands beyond a line that ran through the sources of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic.
England, it seemed, meant to favor the Indians and the fur traders. It would do so at the
expense of the pioneer, the land speculator, and the colony whose charter gave it a claim
to a section of the interior extending westward to the Mississippi River. But the
settlements east of the Proclamation Line were not to be neglected. For their defense
England decided to station a large army on the frontier. England decreed that the
colonies should contribute toward the expense of this protection by paying taxes imposed
by Parliament. The Americans having been accustomed to self-government, strongly resisted
the new laws, especially tax laws. 
The Sugar Act placed a three-penny tax on each gallon of molasses entering the colonies
from ports outside the British Empire. Several Northern colonies had thriving run
industries that depended on imported molasses. Run producers angrily protested that tax
would eat up their profits. The Quartering Act ordered the colonies to supply the
soldiers with living quarters, fuel, candles, and cider or beer. 
The Stamp Act levied a direct tax on all newspapers printed in the colonies and on most
commercial and legal documents used in business. The Stamp Act resulted in riots. The
objections of the Stamp Act Congress stemmed from the colonists' belief that the right of
taxation belonged only to the people and their elected representatives. The delegates
argued that Parliament had no power to tax the colonies because the colonies had no
representative in Parliament. Their argument was simply, no taxation without
representation. 
Parliament abolished the Stamp Act in 1766, but passed the Declaratory Act. The
Declaratory Act stated that the king and Parliament had full legislative authority over
the colonies in all matters. The Exchequer Charles Townshend soon developed a new plan
for raising money from the colonies in and indirect way. The Townshend Acts placed duties
on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. Another act set up a
customs agency in Boston to collect them efficiently. The colonists accepted Britain's
right to regulate their trade, but they argued that the Townshend duties were taxes in
disguise. To protest the duties, Americans stopped buying British goods. 
To avoid paying the Townshend duty on tea, colonial merchants smuggled in tea from the
Netherlands. Britain's East India Company had been the chief source of tea for the
colonies. The smuggling hurt the company financially, and it asked Parliament for help.
Parliament passed the tea Act, which enabled the East India Company to sell its tea below
the price of smuggled tea. This led to the Boston Tea Party. 
England responded to the Boston Tea Party by passing several laws that became know as the
Intolerable Acts. One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed
tea. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave
added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts. Those powers in effect made him
dictator. The third measure provide d that British officials accused of committing crimes
in a colony might be taken to England for trial. The fourth act allowed the governor of
Massachusetts to quarter soldiers at Boston in taverns and unoccupied buildings. The last
Intolerable act extended the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River and
gave the Roman Catholics in the province both religious liberty and the double protection
of French and English law. Several committees called for a convention of delegates from
the colonies to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The convention was later to
be called the Continental Congress. 
The First continental Congress met in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774
to protest the Intolerable Acts. The Congress voted to cut off colonial trade with
England unless Parliament abolished the Intolerable Acts. It also approved resolutions
advising the colonies to begin trainin the citizens for war. None of the delegates to the
First Continental Congress called for independence from England. Instead, the delegated
hoped that the colonies would regain the rights which Parliament had taken away. The
congress agreed to hold another Continental Congress in may 1775 if England did not
change its policies before that time. 
The defects of British rule was the main contribution of the American Revolution. For a
long time England had let the colonies drift along with little restraint. There was no
central colonial office which weas supposed to supervise them; executive authority in
England was divided among several ministers and commissions that did not act quickly or
in unison. The Board of Trade, which knew more about the colnies than any other body, did
not have the power either to ecide things or to enforce decrees. English politics were
filled with corruption, and agents sent to Anmerica were often brive-taking politicians
too incompetent for good positions at home. Relations between the colonists and England
steadily worsened from 1763-1775. This was the time when Parliament passed a number of
laws to increase Great Britain's income from the colonies. The colonists reacted angrily.
They lived far from Britain and had grown increasingly self-reliant. Many Americans
believed that the new British policies threatened their freedom. In late 1774, England's
King George III declared, The die is now cast, the colonies must either submit or
triumph. A few months later, the Revolutionary War broke out. 
Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Revolution. World Book Encyclopedia. World Book Inc. Chicago: Illinois. 1997.
Pg. 270-274.
American Revolution. Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia. 1994
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press. Cambridge: Massachusetts. 1967.
Goldfield, David etal. The American Journey: A history of the Untied States. Prentice
hall. Upper Saddle River: New Jersey. 1998. Pg. 130-153.