Key Events Leading To The American Revolution

The state of the American Colonies before the events that led to the revolution were that of profit and expansion. Whilst the British Empire was entrenched in a brutal and costly war with France, American markets and trade were flourishing, as well as investiture and population growth. The key events and ideas that drove the American colonists to revolution began in the aftermath of the French and Indian wars that ended in February 10, 1763, leaving the British Empire with a massive war debt. This debt became the basis on which Britain enforced various taxes and policies which led to a series of major events, a decaying relationship between the colonies and Britain and the development of revolutionary thought in Colonial America. ‘In part the deterioration of relations between Britain and her American colonies - which eventually led to the War of Independence - stemmed from a logical British attempt to make the colonies contribute more to the cost of their own defence. It was also

This was due to the British government giving the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade in North America, once again damaging American trade. In response the colonists took part in an event known as the Boston Tea Party, where they dressed up as Native American Indians and dumped the equivalent of nearly 45 tons of tea into the ocean. The British saw this occurrence as an act of immense insolence and in response enforced even harsher policies on the colonies. ‘The destruction of the tea proved the last straw for the British, who believed that they had done everything possible to accommodate the Americans. The only response had been violence, this time against the East India Company, one of the country’s most prestigious corporations…’(middleton, 473). In order to turn America back into an obedient subject, the British implemented a series of measures which became known as the ‘Intolerable Acts’ by the