There were many, many factors that led to
the America Revolution. To make the assertion that one event led to the
Revolution is beyond ridiculous, although may people believe something along
those lines. The Intolerable Acts, Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre, skirmishes
at Lexington and Concord, or any one even was not the catalyst
behind it, but each of these helped shape the Revolution. In this essay,
however, this author has chosen to focus on the legislation passed in England that
drove the colonists to the brink of war.
The most
basic, root cause of the Revolution was, quite simply, this: the colonists felt
that they were still Englishmen, and as such, should receive all the rights and
proper treatment, however, the British felt that the colonies were there to be
exploited for the greatest benefit to the Crown. This is best seen in the years
following the French and Indian War. Britain, saddled with years of war
debt, believes the colonies should help pay for this, since a portion of the
wars were fought on American soil. In 1763, Parliament passes the Proclamation
of 1763, thus creating what is dubbed “the Proclamation Line”, not allowing
colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.
This act was passed primarily to protect the colonists and satisfy the Indian
tribes, but to many of the colonists, this was highly offensive. The next year,
the Revenue Act of 1764, more commonly known as the Sugar Act, was passed in
Parliament, increasing duties on sugar to raise revenue for that pesky English
war debt. (“Revolutionary War: Birth”, 2008) This act also taxed molasses,
silks, wines and potash, and worked the colonists into a near frenzy. There
were other Acts passed that year by Parliament that were harmful and
suppressive to the colonies as well, such as the Currency Act, but the next major
Act passed that was incredibly degrading to the colonists was the Quartering
Act of 1765.
The Quartering
Act forced the colonists to house, feed and care for any English soldier that
came into their home; this Act allowed the British government to have an
increased troop presence in North America without having to worry about
overpopulating their barracks or paying for food, as well. The real price,
however, was the increased tension between colonists and the British Regulars,
as the close contact and the fact that colonists’ homes were – for all
intensive purposes – being broken into, it wasn’t exactly the best atmosphere
to engender good feelings and mutual respect. The Stamp Act was introduced and
passed the very next year, which put a tax on virtually all things printed, and
spawned the Stamp Act Congress, a group of colonial gentlemen who compiled a
list of grievances against the Crown, and the Sons of Liberty, who come into
play later in the story.
The Townshend
Acts, passed in 1767, caused increased duties on imported glass, paper and tea,
but these were simply bypassed by the colonists smuggling said items into ports
illegally. When Parliament heard about the smuggling rings, however, they sent
more troops to the Americas
in an attempt to quash the unlawful commerce. There were no more Acts passed by
Parliament for three years; but, in 1770, a mob of colonists clashed openly in
the streets of Boston,
where the British Regulars opened fire on the civilians after being harassed
and pelted with ice and snowballs with rocks inside. Five colonists were
killed, and the soldiers, along with their commanding officer were tried via
court martial. Defended by John Adams, who would eventually become the second
President of the United
States, and Josiah Quincy, only two of the
soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter: the rest, including the officer,
were all acquitted. (Jones, 1999) This incident was put to excellent use as
propaganda to unite the colonies against the British Crown. Both Paul Revere
and Samuel Adams, among others, had the story of supposed British cruelty, and its
accompanying image spreading like wildfire throughout the colonies within days
of it occurrence.
The Tea Act
of 1773, coupled with the tea portion of the Townshend Acts, was purely to
assist the British East India Trading Company’s sales in the colonies, buy
essentially creating a monopoly for them via legislation. The colonists would
have none of that, so a group from the Sons of Liberty – who we saw earlier –
disguised themselves as Indians and snuck aboard three British ships carrying
East India Co.’s tea, and dumped all 342 chests of it overboard into Boston Harbor.
This outraged the British, and when the government of Boston refused to pay for the tea, and the
duties required by law, the English closed the port.
To deter any
further demonstrations, Parliament passed what became to be known as the
Intolerable Acts. These were passed in response to the Boston Tea Party, and
placed many restrictions on the colonists, including outlawing town meetings
and any sort of public assemblies and the official closing of Boston Harbor.
After the
First Continental Congress met later that year, and a boycott of British goods
was agreed upon, the Crown decided to take more extreme actions. In April,
1775, British Regulars set out to the town of Concord to seize colonial munitions, and to
arrest both Samuel Adams and John Hancock. However, at a small town called Lexington, the Regulars
encounter a group of men from the local militia. No one knows who fired the
first shot, dubbed the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”, but all it took was that
little spark. The America Revolution had begun.
References
Jones, Jeremy. (1999). American Revolution
Persuaders. Connecticut
Business Web. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://www.ctbw.com/jones.htm
Kelly, Martin. (2011). Causes of the American Revolution.
American History on About.com. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/revolutionarywar/a/amer_revolution.htm
Revolutionary War: Birth of a Nation. (2008) Retrieved from http://www.historycentral.com/Revolt/causes.html
