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The Inevitability Of The Anglo-American Revolution

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The inevitability of an American revolution was clear by seventeen-sixty-three: an astonishing twelve years before the actual start of the revolution. The accumulation of tensions and antagonisms between the British and colonists eventually pushed them to the other side of the Rubicon River; the die was thrown. Anglo-American relations was afflicted from all sides, starting with the collective exposure of the colonists to many new philosophies and ideas that showed clearly the inequality the colonists were facing against the British. This elucidated the necessity and immediacy of change deep within their minds, increasing the hostility between the two groups. Perhaps the events that crossed the threshold of maintaining peace between the two …show more content…

In the early periods of the colonial settlements in America, the Americans lived relatively freely without much restriction. However, since the British believed in mercantilist ideas, they tried to maximize their profits in their colonies through these Navigation Acts. The colonists acquiesced mainly because they have been accustomed to strict regulations during their residence in Europe, and the freedom of living in America still outweighed. A couple of years later, the British officials in the colonies loosened their enforcements of these acts, which consequently lead to generations of colonists to live freer than any people in the world. Although many would assume this salutary neglect would have improved Anglo-American relations, it actually worsened it because it altered colonialist expectation of the British. During the period of salutary neglect, which lasted for several decades, generations of descendents of colonists have taken root in the colonies. Many generations have not experienced strict regulations by the British throughout their entire lives; they have only experienced freedom. When the British had to re enforce these Navigation Laws in 1764 to help aid the monetary recuperation following the Seven Years War, the colonists at the time responded with outrage and distress because it was something they have never experienced in their lifetime. When the Navigation Laws were first introduced to the early colonists in the mid-seventeenth century, the colonists responded relatively indifferently due to the fact that they have had experience with situations like those, but to the main population of the colonists in 1763, government restriction was absolutely foreign to them, and

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