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Historical Events Leading To The American Revolution Essay

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The historical events leading to the American Revolution are the Acts, Natural Rights, and the Revolutionary Writings. The Acts were laws that were passed by the British and restricted the colonies in many ways. Meanwhile John Lock and Montesquieu were arguing their ideas of Natural Rights. Also Thomas Jefferson made the Declaration of Independence while Thomas Paine made a pamphlet called Common Sense. The Acts were strict and harsh which upset the colonists and only added to the lead up of the American Revolution. First was the Tea Act. The Tea Act was a big tax on a huge thing at the time: Tea. Everyone drank this drink so the Act was highly hated. Next was the Townshend Act. This act was put into effect in 1768 and it taxed the imports …show more content…

Natural rights are rights given to each human from birth and according to John Locke these rights include, Liberty, Life, and Property. Locke disagreed with the idea of Divine Right. He claimed that rights never came from the king, but from God. He also argued that the people made the government to only protect those rights, and if one was to give out some of their own freedom, it would have to be to protect the community’s rights. This also meant that if a monarch was to violate these rules, the people have the right to overthrow the monarch. Though John Locke had challenged these Divine Rights, Montesquieu did too. Montesquieu said that the government should be more defined, and limited. This was why he favored the Separation of Powers. This was the idea to divide the government into branches. Specifically Montesquieu wanted three branches: a legislative branch to make the laws, an executive branch to put the laws into action, and a judicial branch to make judgments over the laws. He said that with this type of government, it would protect the rights of the people because it kept one group from ever gaining too much power. Montesquieu and John Locke both challenged Divine Rights but they each had their own approach on it, varying from Natural Rights, to a Separation of

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