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(Patel) 1 Omni Patel Patrick Coleman U.S History 1 Septermber 17, 2020 Causes of the American Revolution The road to the breakup of the American colonist with the British Empire in 1776 was not an accident neither was it sudden nor impulsive. Rather, it took a series of events, which began more than ten years earlier for the thirteen counties to come together to fight the war of independence against the Crown. These events were triggered soon after the French and Indian War where after the British troops had helped the colonists to fight the war, the British troops remained in the colonies and the British parliament decided to pay for the troops by taxing the American colonies. In this paper, I am going to look at some of the key events that led to the American Revolution. The Stamp Act (March 1765) In 1764, the British government started to impose new taxes and laws on its colonists. Until then each colony governed itself and had its tax collection system. The British colonies put in place several legislations including the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required the colonists to pay taxes directly to the British government without prior approval of their respective governments ("American Revolution | Causes, Battles, Aftermath, & Facts"). Also, these taxes were only payable using the British Sterling which was very hard to obtain. Also, failure to pay the taxes had dire consequences such as prosecution in the Vice-Admiralty courts without juries.

(Patel) 2 Besides, those who violated the Stamp Act were to be detained anywhere within the British Empire. The American colonist resisted these laws and taxes. They demanded representation in the British parliament without which they had resolved to resist the taxation. The Americans also resented having to buy goods from the British. When Benjamin Franklin talked to the British government into removing the laws, it became quite evident to the Americans that they could resist anything that the British government tried to impose on them. In October 1765, the Stamp Act Congress composed of members from nine colonies petitioned the king stating that only colonial jurisdictions had the right to tax the colonies. At the same time, the colonists organized riots to oppose the act. They mobbed and threatened stamp distributors destroying their properties. This kind of resistance forced the British to rescind the Stamp Act in 1766. This repeal was followed by the Declaratory Act by the British government. The Declaratory Act The Declaratory act was an affirmation by the British government that it was powerful and that it could enact laws and impose taxes on any of its colonies when it saw fit. The Declaratory Act had two other major proclamations: that the colonial governments did not have the right to enact laws and impose taxes on their respective jurisdictions, and that laws made by the colonial assemblies denying the British government the authority to impose laws and taxes on them were null and void. However, this was met by strong resistance from colonists. The Declaratory Act although less talked about could be the act that angered the American colonist the most leading to the Revolutionary War ("American Revolution | Causes, Battles, Aftermath, & Facts"). The act indicated that the British government was oblivious of the political maturity of the American colonist that had escalated in the first half of the eighteenth century. The events that followed the

(Patel) 3 Declaratory Act including suspension of the American assembly by the British parliament as part of the 1767 Townshend Acts culminated into increased colonial tension. The Townshend Acts The Townshend Acts was made by the British government to impose heavy taxes on goods imported from Britain into America. Further, the British government appointed custom commissioners to eradicate corruption and smuggling of goods into America by local officers. Americans reacted by boycotting goods imported from Britain and threatening the custom officers. The situation worsened when the British government sent troops to Boston to ease the resistance. This move only escalated the rebellion. The tension between the British troops and Boston residents gave rise to the Bolton in which a number of the residents were shot leading to the Boston Massacre in 1970("American Revolution | Causes, Battles, Aftermath, & Facts"). This later served as a propaganda tool against British rule thus increasing the colonial tension. The British government eventually withdrew its troops from Boston and lifted the Townshend Acts. However, it further enacted laws that limited trade between America and other countries especially the importation of tea. This was met by resistance from a radical group called the Sons of Liberty who destroyed tea belonging to East India Company which was mostly owned by British members of parliament. The Quartering Act The Quartering Act required Americans to provide shelter, food, and drinks for British troops. However, the colonist troops were required to pay for these services. The colonial assemblies refused to comply with these directives. They claimed that the act was a way of taxing them without their consent ("The Quartering Act Of 1765 - History Is Fun"). Also, they feared that

(Patel) 4 these troops would eventually be used against them. The American colonists were so concerned about the Quartering act that it was stated as one of the main complaints in the Independence Declaration Objection to Taxation Taxes imposed by the Stamp Act and the Townsend Act provoked a heated debate on the legitimacy of British Rule. The American Revolution was partly caused by the laws passed by the British Parliament to regulate taxation and trade. These laws created tension between the colonists and the British government. To American revolutionaries like Alexander Hamilton, these taxes provoked fears of domination and extraction ("Did Taxes Cause The American Revolution?"). The American colonist revolted against the British parliament’s commitment to imposing taxes while denying it the right to legislation. Advocates of British taxation were mobbed by crowds. The British government was concerned that this kind of revolution would make the colonists ungovernable. They, therefore, resolved to collapse the colonists’ economies by hiking the taxes. Tax objection was also met by resistant statements by the British parliament such as Saome Jenyns’s pamphlet ‘The Objections to the Taxation of Our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, in 1765’. Jenyns affirmed that the Parliament was obligated to tax and rule the colonists. He resolved that a member of parliament represented the king’s subjects including those that did not vote for them. To form a stronger Imperial government, the British parliament pushed for new colonial taxes ("Did Taxes Cause The American Revolution?"). A section of British politicians, intellectuals, and activists including William Pitt and other statesmen criticized the colonial taxation and even joined in the fight for a just empire. They thought that colonial taxation not only reduced customers for British industries but also

(Patel) 5 meant tyranny for the colonists. When the revolution finally came, they sided with the Americans. “Conclusion” The British rule on America was built upon the promise of liberty and prosperity. The American Revolution was a progeny of an increasingly cruel and exploitative British rule. As a way of resisting British rule, American revolutionists came up with a new republican empire that promised freedom and prosperity to its citizens.

(Patel) 6 Works cited "American Revolution | Causes, Battles, Aftermath, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Revolution. "Did Taxes Cause The American Revolution?". Yale University Press Blog, 2020, http://blog.yalebooks.com/2017/06/07/did-taxes-cause-the-american-revolution/. "The Quartering Act Of 1765 - History Is Fun". History Is Fun, 2020, https://www.historyisfun.org/blog/quartering-act-of-1765/....