ipl-logo

The Mindets Of The Colonists Leading Up To The American Revolution

1138 Words5 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. The Seven Years’ War had been fought on several continents and with several empires. This lead to …show more content…

The British empire knew that a war with Native Americans could prove to be very expensive for the empire, so creating a boundary would satisfy that no Native Americans would be attack by or attack and colonists. This angered the colonists because they had just fought for the British empire to be able to acquire this portion of land and without the ability to settle there, the colonists were unclear of the purpose for fighting for the land.
The other part of the mindset of Britain was to lower their staggering debt from years of colonial warfare was to establish several taxes on the colonies. The parliament began with the Sugar and Currency Acts of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765. The Currency Act was used to restrict the use of currency made by the colonies. This made it very hard for the colonists to grow the economy because of how there was a very limited amount of specie available to the colonists. This act limited the amount of trade that colonies were able to make out of the colonies themselves because this was money that the British were not making from the colonists because they were passing over a step in mercantilism. The Sugar Act was also passed in 1764 and was passed to combat the smuggling of molasses in the region of New England. The people …show more content…

The Tea Act, although it greatly lowered the cost of tea, came with great resistance because if the colonists purchased the tea, they were acknowledging the ability for parliament to tax the colonies. The ability to tax the colonies was what the British needed to reduce their debt, but this is exactly what the colonists did not want because they felt that they could only be taxed by their own government in which they had representation. The Sons of Liberty reacted to the Tea Act by organizing a protest in which Sam Adams and John Hancock led a group of colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians for disguise to ships that carried tea that were stuck in the harbor without a place to unload their tea because of the boycott on tea. The Sons of Liberty went on to the boat and dumped three hundred forty two chests of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor. The British parliament responded to this by passing the Coercive Acts, known as the “Intolerable Acts” which shut down the Boston Harbor, gave control of the Massachusetts Government over to British control, allowed any british official accused of a crime be tried in Britain and for British soldiers to quarter in the private property of colonists. The Coercive Acts brought the colonies closer than they had ever been and the other colonies gathered food to send to Boston. This changed the goal of the colonists to being more focused on

Show More
Related
509 Words | 3 Pages

The Sugar Act taxed imports such as sugarcane and molasses. This made the colonists angry because they didn’t have any say or representation to oppose this act. The second event was the Stamp Act of 1766. The Stamp Act taxed things such as stamps, paper, newspapers,

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

Currency actor of 1751 added bills and credits to New England. 1774 intolerable act is just restoring colonies. 1773 the Tea act was to benefit the East Indies, 1733 they allowed to smuggle and allowed them to to trades with other colonies. 1765 the Stamp Act put taxes on stamps and mailing items.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

It doubled the taxes on foreign goods that were reshipped from England to the colonies. It also prevented the import of foreign rum and French wines. The English Parliament also passed a law to reorganize the American

Read More
686 Words | 3 Pages

Parliament had directly taxed the colonies for revenue in the sugar act.\ 8 Toleration act of 1649 this bill made it a crime to restrict the religious right of Christians . This was the first law supporting religious tolerance passed in the English .... 9 The Boston Massacre of 1770 many Bostonians saw the presence of British troops as a threat by the British government against its city in Massachusetts. Some colonists agreed with Samuel Adams, who said I look upon British soldiers as foreign people.. 10 The Boston tea party of 1773 began when the British started taxing the colonists on tea was high despite the boycott. But colonial merchants were smuggling most ofthis imported tea and paying on duty 11 The Intolerable act 1774 British troops are quarted Massachusetts charter is cancelled Royal officials accoused of crimes will be sent colonists resentment toward British builds colonist start to consident their opiop of separating from great britan this act was used to stop the king form getting to power an carried away so they made this act to help him the congress would matter the king and his afferts to be ruler..

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

Prior to the american revolution the british are heavily taxing colonists to pay for the french and indian war, the french and indian war happened in 1755 and lasted until 1763. The french and indian war or the 7 years war was between britain and france the conflict was between the land in the US, the british ended up driving out the france and reclaiming the land. This made trade extremely hard for native americans because the french were nicer to the natives than the british. In 1763 the proclamation was passed to to prevent land claims west of the appalachian mountains. After the war the british needed to make the money back that was spent on the war as they were in severe debt because of the war.

Read More
237 Words | 1 Pages

1700’s British colonies made up most of America. These colonists generated a lot of money by growing and exporting lumber, fishing, doing work as blacksmiths, and many other jobs. But when the French and Indian War had ended in 1763, Britain was heavily in debt. To pay off all this debt Britain started passing many acts, to make money off of the colonists. There were many different acts which included The Stamp Act of 1765, which required colonists to purchase postage and include the stamps with documents and paper goods.

Read More
127 Words | 1 Pages

England began to realize the enormity of the expenses involved in financing the colonies as the cost surged to £350,000 a year after the war, adding to the already vast national debt. The American territory was much larger than England, which made it more difficult to govern. There were disputes between the colonists over land.

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

Read the article The Boston Tea Party. American Battlefield Trust, 2 Nov. 2023, it says “In 1763, Great Britain won the French and Indian War after nine long years. However, the British victory came at a hefty price. Parliament began to levy taxes on the North American colonies to pay for the debts incurred by the war.” The American colonies were not fond of the fact that they were paying for the debts of the British.

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

They taxed the colonists to collect this money. The colonists were annoyed at the British because they didn’t feel they should have to pay for the debt which Great Britain had. The colonists were also upset about the taxes because they did not have representation in Parliament and did not have a say in what Parliament did.

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

The colonists participated in smuggling to try to avoid the taxes, and The Sugar Act made legal sugar trade and transport extremely complicated and frustrating, which also made smuggling seem more appealing for the colonists (“The Sugar Act”). This caused the British to crack down on smuggling and enforce the collecting of the taxes, further angering the colonists. This is only one of the many acts that taxed the colonists. Each one angered the colonists more and more, ultimately leading to the Revolutionary War and the liberation of the colonies (Tim George, “The 4 Acts That Lead To The American Revolution”). The Sugar Act had affected the colonies in different ways.

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

The American Revolution as we know it did not have to happen. History is multifaceted, and the revolution is no exception to that rule, but while there is little doubt at some point a revolution would have occurred, why did we end up with the revolution we got? A broad host of factors contributed to our revolution, but ultimately it was the economic conditions of the time period, the political traditions of the soon to be American people, and the proto-foreign relations of the colonies that painted the picture that would become the American Revolution. The policies enacted by the British against the colonies after the French and Indian War infringed upon their strong independent spirit; while the colonists pulled one way, the British pulled the other, eventually backfiring and paving the way to revolution.

Read More
895 Words | 4 Pages

For example, The Declaratory act was in favor of the British since there was no opposing force upon its upbringing, due to the colonist basically ignoring its presence. Continuing to celebrate the repeal of a previous policy gave the British government space to work with in order to conjure up more policies, hurting the colonists. Unlike the reaction of the Declaratory act, the Tea Act, respectively, withdrew an exaggerated response from the colonials. The Boston Tea Party is the iconic ideal of outraged responses, puting the British in deeper debt than before. While this was a huge inconvenience to the British it was harder on the colonials when backlash occurred, resulting in a full drive towards independence from Britain, winning the American Revolutionary War, and squandering all British control.

Read More
842 Words | 4 Pages

Each of the these acts took away a freedom of the colonists, benefiting the British. For example, the Sugar Act placed a high tax on imported sugar and molasses, giving lots of money to the british.

Read More
1375 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
533 Words | 3 Pages

Arguably, these taxes were only placed by Britain to “milk” the colonies for profit. Ben Franklin responded to the Stamp Act, writing a letter to John Hughs to discuss efforts to get it repealed (Document G). . In a way, the series of taxes applied by Parliament would spark a fire within the colonists and begin the American Revolution, where Americans finally say enough is enough. The time had come for political and ideological change, where the colonies would break from their motherland, Great Britain. In conclusion, the French Indian War would kick off a series of political, economic, and ideological events that changed the relationship between Britain and its colonies forever.

Read More

More about The Mindets Of The Colonists Leading Up To The American Revolution

Related Topics

Open Document