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American Revolution Dbq

1528 Words7 Pages

Many American’s are aware that the American Revolution started, because the British Government was taxing the colonies without giving them proper representation in parliament. However, what many American’s do not understand is that the colonial protestors had many more complaints about the British Government in the mid 1770s. Thomas Paine described the colonists view of the British best when he said, “The British were thieves, literally “highwaymen” who stole American rights and wealth as well.” The years following the Seven Years War brought drastic changes for the colonists as Great Britain started taking more control over the them and with each new tax they continued to fill with rage. The most convincing evidence the colonial protestors …show more content…

Prior to the Seven Years War, Great Britain had enforced the idea of salutary neglect when it came to governing the colonies and for the most part the colonists had a good relationship with England. They left the colonists alone and did not complain, as long as they were generating revenue for the country. However, after the Seven Years War Great Britain was left with a great deal of debt and they felt that the colonists should help pay for their share considering England had helped protect them during the war. In the beginning, England was not seeking to take the colonists liberty, but as time went by and the tensions between them and the colonists increased, they began to take away more of the colonies’ …show more content…

The colonists no longer considered it be a virtuous government. As Thomas Paine said, “Government is, or at least should be, designed to “supply the deflect of moral virtue”. It is evident that in the years 1774 to 1776 that British government had become corrupt and they were forcing laws upon the colonists that they did not have the authority to do. By enforcing these laws without giving the colonists proper representation in Parliament the British government had infringed on the colonist’s rights to life, liberty, and

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1248 Words | 5 Pages

Settling in the New World provided both the American settlers and the British government with many opportunities. For the colonists, North America provided an opportunity to improve their lives and escape religious persecution. For the British, settlers in North America provided access to raw materials and new markets in which to sell finished goods. This mercantilist relationship continued for several years, until the colonists began to question Parliament’s right to treat them differently than other British citizens. Taxes were imposed on the colonists as a means of helping to pay the debt Britain had incurred fighting the French.

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1167 Words | 5 Pages

The American colonies established their resistance to the British royal crown, as the ministers of King George III began to impose new taxes trying to reduce debt that incurred during the French and Indian War, aka the Seven Years War (1754-1763). The American

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832 Words | 4 Pages

British policies established in 1763-1776 greatly affected the colonists and pushed them towards developing their own republican values. All of the acts and taxes the British issued and how overly controlling the British were over the colonists was the starting point, also the increasing rebellions encouraged the colonists to break away from Britain’s rule, and finally the wars that resulted and seizing authority from the British was the final turning point for the colonists in eliminating Britain’s heavy-handed ruling over the colonists. The acts, and taxes that came with most of the acts, that the English imposed on the colonists was a substantial reason the colonists opposed British rule. After the French and Indian war the British found

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1233 Words | 5 Pages

The Double Standard For Freedom The colonists accepted British authority for many decades, however in the mid to late 1700’s the colonists had a blossoming divergent identity and felt the British were infringing on it. This began with the Molasses Act and continued to build through the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and then finally the Intolerable Acts. For many decades, the colonists were effectively autonomous, remaining under the British rule but behaving mostly independently. However, after the Seven Years War, Britain began to overreach by imposing revenue taxes on things like tea.

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1558 Words | 7 Pages

Between 1763 and 1775, there were three ‘Imperial Crises’ which occurred between the British and the American colonists. The conflict that was produced during this period arose through an undefined balance of political and economic power between the two parties. In 1763, Britain had just concluded the French and Indian war and was left with an immense and almost crippling debt of around 140 million pounds sterling (“Turning Point In American History”). In Britain’s eyes, the most effective way to reduce this debt was increased taxes. Unfortunately, the people of England were already massively overtaxed, which meant the last option for the British was to tax the American colonists.

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685 Words | 3 Pages

Soon after the Seven Years’ War, the British and the colonists learned that victory came with a rather expensive price (Kennedy, Cohen, & Bailey, 2010). Great Britain tightened its grip on the colonies in North America, expecting colonists to pay for their financial struggles. In order to make colonists pay for the war, Great Britain reminded the North American colonies who had authority by controlling the colonists to submit to various ordinances ratified by British Parliament. This action only showed that arrogance leads to rebellion socially, economically, and politically. Socially, a lack of communication between Great Britain and the North American colonies was to blame for the Revolutionary War.

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793 Words | 4 Pages

CONTEXT During the American Revolution, the colonists suffered from many things. The biggest challenge they faced was Great Britain. The colonists were receiving unfair treatment and taxation in order to pay off expenses that had accumulated for Britain. The colonists did not like this so they retaliated, but Britain only punished them worse in order to keep them in check. Many of the colonists did not want to pay taxes, however, there was a few that were still loyal to the motherland.

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1920 Words | 8 Pages

Without their say put in, the colonists felt as though they were deprived of their rights as Englishmen especially when Parliament taxed them without their permission. The colonists ultimately began the Colonial Assembly and their own self-government to start making decisions on their own without the help of the English because the British were unreasonably taxing item without their consent and without taxing the people of England in the same way ( ). The British were the ones who caused the Revolutionary

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227 Words | 1 Pages

Great Britain was the most powerful government in the world in the time of the American revolution, it had a reputable navy and army. Britain’s government style was a monarchy with a parliamentary system, which was implemented in the colonies. Following The seven years war British troops were stationed in the U.S. colonies war this and the war combined put Britain in a great amount of debt. In order to pay debts parliament needed to create revenue, so Grenville who was the prime minister and the British government introduced the sugar and currency act, along with these acts it created more taxes including, the Stamp act, Coercive acts, and Townshend acts. These all angered the colonists because they were not being properly represented in

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1138 Words | 5 Pages

The mindsets of the British government and the American colonists differed greatly leading up to the American Revolution because of Britain's need to recoup some of their losses from previous wars and the cost of keeping up their vast empire. The colonist’s mindset leading up to the American Revolution was that the British had taxes on everything and the colonists felt that they did not need the British government to meddle in their affairs. This lead to popular resistance from the colonists and the eventual start of the American Revolution. Before the American Revolution, the Seven Years’ War was the cause of significant debt for the British.

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1739 Words | 7 Pages

The colonists may have refused to accept the responsibilities of being Englishmen, however, the American colonists were reasonably justified in waging war and breaking away from Britain. The increasing distrust of and resentment toward British officials, the unfair and oppressive taxes imposed by Parliament on the colonists, and the restriction of colonial freedoms all contribute to the colonists’ justification of secession from Great Britain. Some may believe the colonists’ rebellion against British authority was not justified. The British Parliament had appropriate motives for imposing the laws they did on the colonists in the 1760s. The Seven Years’ War was “a war undertaken for [the colonists’] defense only,” to which Britain had devoted a large proportion of its resources.

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670 Words | 3 Pages

Overall, it is highly considered that America was the winner of the American Revolution. Although the American Revolution may have been considered a success for enslaved Americans and patriots, other groups in America were negatively impacted by the war. Groups that were impacted negatively consisted of the Loyalists, Women, and Native Americans. This shows that America as a whole was not positively impacted by the American Revolution, as many groups were left in poor statuses. The Loyalists were allies and followers of the British Crown during the American Revolution.

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579 Words | 3 Pages

The American Revolution (1775-1783) refers to the time period when the thirteen established colonies rose up against the British monarchy (newworldencyclopedia.org). For years, the British had taken advantage of those who lived in the thirteen colonies by imposing extremely restrictive taxes, acts, as well as policies that gave the colonists absolutely no governing power. Instead, they were given no representation, which was only one of many reasons colonists decided that it was time for a change. One of the reasons that the British sought to colonize was because it would allow them to increase their wealth.

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301 Words | 2 Pages

When looking at the social and political changes that took place during the early American colonies you can see a steady progression towards ideologies that would lead to the Revolution. When you have different levels of government being put in place by the states depending upon their needs, where rural areas had different court systems than more urban areas, you see a level of independence for governance that the colonists began to see the benefit of having, separate from the rule of the Crown. To counter this increase in independence. the Crown implemented ever changing political positions that could be assigned to those who were loyal to the Crown and the social hierarchy that was prevalent in Britain at the time. These actions of corruption

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810 Words | 4 Pages

The colonists tried everything to rebel against Great Britain, they petitioned, remonstrated, supplicated, and prostrated themselves before the throne, and also implored it’s interposition to arrest tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. The British believed the colonists were weak and unable to cope

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