American Revolution Dbq Essay

The American Revolution wasn't just about battles and heroes; it was a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to shape the future of a nation. The revolution took place in the American colonies and was from 1775 to 1783. The important revolutionary leaders were George Washington and King George III. Things that led to the war were many taxes by the British and not letting the colonists have their own government. The cause of all these taxes was the French and Indian War. This war was very costly and gave the British the land called Canada. In order to pay for the war, the colonies were taxed heavily. The American colonists' justification for waging war against the British stemmed from being denied westward expansion, lacking governmental

The British government passed a law that didn’t allow the colonists to move westward of the Appalachian Mountains (Document 2). Furthermore, proving that the British government didn’t let the colonists move westward and this allowed them to tax the colonists even more and make them pay for the war. The British were in a lot of debt so they started to tax the colonies heavily (BE). The British thought the French and Indian War was fought for the colonies, so they made them pay for the war by enforcing taxes and used other methods to gain money. The American colonists were taxed heavily and were unable to expand westward of the Appalachian Mountains, which was just one of the reasons which angered the colonists. The British taxed the colonists with Acts like the Stamp Act and Townshend Act and didn’t allow the colonists to have a say in Parliament. So they created their own government, the Continental Congress. John Dickinson wrote that the British were just allowed to tax them at any given moment. Dickinson was part of the Continental Congress and addressed this issue (Document

The colonists expressed numerous grievances that remained unaddressed, yet upon gaining their freedom, they chose not to impose any of these same restrictions on their own people. The British imposed the Quartering Act which made colonists provide food and shelter for the soldiers(Document 8). The American country did not impose this act on its people and tried to send a grievance to the British, however they never got a reply back. Gordon Wood said that the American nation was the most egalitarian nation in the world, which was because the country listened to the people of the nation and didn’t impose harsh acts or heavy taxes (Document 9). Therefore, proving that the American colonists were not as bad as Great Britain and were forced to house soldiers. Many people during the American Revolution were financially unstable and with the Quartering Act they had to house even more people and had to put the needs of the soldiers before themselves. The colonies decided to be better than the British and not impose their acts on the American people and instead became an egalitarian