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Why Did The American Colonies Engage In The Revolutionary War

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The British Empire began during the age of discovery between the late 15th century and early 18th century where the unknown lands were discovered, colonized and conquered. The North America in the east coast and large part of Africa were once the colonies of the British Empire. Yet, these colonies each has their own road to independence where the Americans fought with bloodshed in the revolutionary war while the Africans had generally gained their independence in a more peaceful means. It is often argued that diverse ethnicity are prone to war due to clashes of values and beliefs. Yet, there are reasons showing the opposite. This essay argues that states that are ethnically and culturally similar are more likely to engage in conflicts over …show more content…

Long before Britain began penetrating the African continent, the American colonies were the lucrative source of income that helps to boost the economy back in England. There were expansion of cash crop plantations to fulfil the high demand of trade . Such plantation include cotton, sugar and tobacco. Britain utilized the natural resources to generate its own revenue in the expense of the colonies. Yet, the colonies had also flourished with the trade of import and export. While fighting for independence, it also meant that the American colonies were fighting over the territory as they need economic resources in order to achieve self-governance. The British and American colonies are closely related populations which resulted in “similar preferences over rival goods”. Furthermore, Britain’s economy was largely dependent on the production of the American colonies than those from the African colonies. By referring to the Triangular Trade, Britain’s economy is heavily dependent on the raw materials and agricultural goods to support the manufacturing sector. These manufacturing goods are then exported to America and Africa . Evidently, the production in America was the main source of income for England as the Triangular Trade has helped to rectify the trade imbalance among the

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The English also seeked raw materials that were scarce in England, and were costly when buying from other countries. The New England area had an abundance of timber that was sent to England to build ships. This timber, and other raw materials became the driving force of New England economy, because of the high demand in England. In England, there were much higher inflation rates, and lower pay than in the colonies, due to the saturated market. Therefore, the American colonies held more economic opportunities than England, with the chance of expanding their

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America’s discovery and the formation of Triangular Trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas drove many new advancements in technology and economics. For example, inflation caused the capitalism’s popularity to rise, new goods were discovered, and European empires thrived. As the Europeans discovered, the Americas contained many resources such as silver, gold, spices, and other valuable goods that were sold to make a surplus of profit. Later on, such resources were farmed using African American slave labor. Quote A exemplifies the benefits for many upper class Europeans and American slave owners.

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The problems that the colonies were about to endure will slow down the total development of each colony and gives them a thought of joining together. External trade was one of the many problems that the colonies had to face. This issue started when Britain decided to move away from the colonial preference in 1846 when it repealed the Corn Laws. Britain was one of the largest producers of manufactured goods and had the largest economy in the world. Although, the United States quickly took over a huge share of the British market when Britain decided to free trade.

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1.Great Britain controlled the economy in the colonies through trade. 2.Every culture or country traded so that they could receive all of the essential goods that they needed to survive. 3.Great Britain forced the colonies to trade only with them so they could make a profit, and also so they could obtain the things they needed from. 4.As a result of the New World not having all that the colonists needed , Great Britain would have those goods that the colonists could use to survive; so they traded their goods back and forth.

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Suddenly, everyday items were in unbelievable demand, which set the supply that industries needed to meet at a comparably high value. From an economic standpoint, a blaring issue would be that a rapid increase in both demand and supply would drive down the price of a good, which would decrease the amount of money fueling the economy. Beyond this, such an unexpected change in demand meant that England needed to seek more goods, which, in turn, called for new colonies and trade opportunities. By around 1755, 24% of England’s GDP was dependent on importing and exporting goods to fuel the growing industrial economy, showing a palpable change from 1655’s 19% (Daudin, O’Rourke 25). As dependence on trade increased, other nations followed suit, leading to conflicts with economic consequences that would influence the American colonies directly.

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The British men gathered full control of the trading center present in the Americas, and created the Navigation Acts to help aid them in their tactics to take control over all trade within the Americas. The Navigation Acts were passed under a mercantilist system, and was used to regulate trade in a way that only benefitted the British economy. These acts restricted trade between England and its colonies to English or colonial ships, required certain colonial goods to pass through England before export, provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies, and banned colonial competition in large-scale manufacturing. This lowered the competition in the trading world for the British and caused the British to have a major surge in power, that greatly attributed to the growth of their rising empire. The British’s ambitious motives in the trading world help portray a way that the British took control of an important piece in the economy of all of the other nations present in the colonies in the time period, and shows another leading factor in the growth of the British empire.

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An example of this would be through free labor. After the word about America spread around the world, many came seeking to work and to start their own businesses. This put America in the position to have free labor and much profit. America also made profits by exporting goods made by slaves such as food,

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The French and Indian war brought about immense change to the relations between the British North American Colonies and Great Britain itself. The British Empire defeated the French and their Indian allies in (year), and as a result Great Britain gained sole control over the future Colonial land areas which would later become the East Coast of the United States. As a result, more time and thought in Britain will be dedicated to the internal behaviors of the colonies rather than foreign competitors. Now, Britain will get more involved in Colonial daily life. This is the overarching idea that creates the division between the British Empire and its North American Colonies.

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The northern colonies for example exported fish for economic revenue while the southern colonies however had an economic advantage in agriculture. Their fertile soils and warm environment allowed for production of crops such as tobacco in the upper southern regions and rice in the lower regions. There was plenty of land to farm and a high demand for workers, which ultimately led to a “land rich, but labor poor” society.

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Much like it did during the slave trade, Britain obtained numerous valuable materials through trade and many found jobs in shipbuilding. In conclusion, the slave trade was the most important factor to the development of the British economy in the 18th century. Although the industrial revolution and trade with empire countries created many new jobs, the slave trade created jobs from shipbuilding to factory work and resulted in Britain earning many new useful materials. It also greatly improved British ports, as the money made was used to build expensive new

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The Americans lacked the freedom of trades due to the British’s triangular trade system which was a result of the advocation of Mercantilism. The reason why mercantilism exaggerated the condition in colonies was that they only protected the profits of local merchants and it limited the production of colonies and export. British merchants gained most profits among all and the monopoly of some daily life requirement rose the prices. Since the goods from British was the onlinest importing channel for the colony, the rights of decision on prices was fixed. The British regulated all trades from the colony and prices of local products which created a shock on American economic structure and made the value of the currency dropped.

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The French and Indian War was a significant turning point for the continental British colonies and their mother country, Great Britain. Not only did the French and Indian War establish British dominance over the French presence in North America, it also set forth the series of events in which the colonies began to break away from King and Parliament. Although the colonists had a strong sense of nationalism for Great Britain before and during the French and Indian War, after Britain 's victory, the economic, social, and political structures in the colonies began to change; shifting colonial views. The colonies were a product of a mercantile system set in place by Great Britain to expand their imperial empire.

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The combination of slave trading and the Mercantilism economic policy of England created the Triangular Trade. The Triangular Trade was a system in which slaves, raw materials, manufactured products, and other various items were traded between England, Africa, and the American Colonies. First, manufactured goods from England such as cloth, beads, guns, and ammunition were shipped across the Atlantic to Africa. Second, slaves, gold, and pepper from Africa were then shipped to the American Colonies for the exchange of raw materials such as timber, fur, iron, fish, whale oil, sugar, tobacco, rice and cotton. From there, ships would take the raw items back to England where more manufactured goods would be produced and then the same process would start all over again.

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Much of the population became farmers which provided imports to England. This helped to build a strong bond between Britain and America. The British relied strongly on colonial imports. Macmillan Learning states, “Despite the many differences among the colonists, the consumption of British exports built a certain material uniformity across region, religion,

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Britain became of higher wealth from all of this colonisation - profits gained in the early centuries came mostly from the trade of furs, tea and slaves. From the slaves came successes in sugar, rubber, cotton and other plantations. By 1850, Britain accounted for, allegedly, half of the total world GDP (Gross Domestic Product - a measure of goods and services in a period). John Hobson commented on the economical progress made by Britain when he said “ It is not too much to say that the modern foreign policy of Great Britain has

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