Apush Dbq Essay

After the French and Indian War, Britain had acquired extensive territory, and therefore to manage its debts they decided to oppress their colonies .The English decided the best way to get rid of the debt was to inflect higher tariffs on the colonies causing, Americans to dramatically shift their ideas about independence. At first, colonists felt a part of the British system and therefore merely wanted slightly more representation in parliament and recognition in colonial assemblies; however as years progressed, by 1783 Americans felt they truly wanted independence away from Great Britain.There were many factors that contributed to the disunion between England and America such as Taxes, Enlightenment ideals and the various laws that the British

At first because the American people felt that they were part of Britain that they would be free of taxes with the goals of making revenue.The first of these taxes was the Stamp act causing direct tax on the colonies. Due to colonists not being represented and taxes becoming higher, the population began to try to reconcile with Britain peacefully however this led to a divide between those loyal to Britain called the loyalists and those who felt oppressed to the point of immediate action called the Patriots. In churches, ministers such as the Quaker leader tried to settle down their congregation by addressing the attitude that people were feeling and discussing in a candid tone how harmony would eventually be restored.(Doc 4) Patriots did not believe this publishing documents peacefully participated in boycotts against british goods in a silent revolving against the British government. However due to the taxes following the stamp act such as the tea acht and the cohesive acts tension grew to the point of revolts.The teapot for example symbolizes a quiet yet powerful way of how Patriots felt that British merchants were unjustly capitalizing on them showing how important trade was(Doc 1). Due to the importance of trade these higher tariffs limited the amount of goods that colonists could afford.American citizens were not content with being trampled on leading to future events

Enlightenment ideals spreading through exchanges, popularised new concepts of divine rights, republican ideologies, and the rejection of inherited authority such as a monarch. Political activists such as the radical Patriot and member of the Sons of Liberty Samuel Adams began speaking to the people these new radical ideas feeling that men were free and that therefore they were not subjects of any king. Patriots such Samuel Adams in an effort to rally the American people applied Enlightenment ideas in an effort to support the growing independence movement. Ideas than can be simplified to the statement that “all people have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of property” later penned in the Declaration of Independence.Thomas Paine in the American Crisis further shows these radical ideals through his strong use of diction calling for independence from britain(Doc 7). Paine being a common folk related to the people and therefore his writings mostly reflected the people of the middle to lower class. Most notably he showed that the people wanted a government in which everyone was represented showing a shift from merely wanting more say in the British legislation to complete