Life Without Imperialism

Life Without Imperialism The United States was formed because of revolution against British imperialism. In the beginning the settlements formed the 13 colonies. However, when England started to become imperialistic, the colonies revolted against them to form the United States. Our country would not have been the same if there had not been imperialism because there wouldn’t have been any impetus to rebel and break away from England. Original the 13 colonies were formed due to people wanting religious freedoms and just to discover new lands. The colonies settled in nicely, but England was still very much in control of the lands. Colonialism is when people move to a new territory and settle there. Imperialism is when a country just takes over a land by sending military and government, but no actual people are living there. Imperialism is almost in a sense needed to in order for colonialism to be created. Although the United States was under colonialism, imperialism was what started the revolution. England later started to become imperialistic by taxing the colonies, which led to rebellious and violent acts. “Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Tariffs of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects” (History.com). With these high taxes the colonist no longer wanted to be under control of England and they started to resist the British government. Once the colonist started to act out the Revolutionary War started. There were many violent outbreaks before the war as well. For example, “Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures” (History). The last episode was also known as the Boston Tea Party. Again, these events accrued because of imperialism and now we are our own country. Today we stand strong and there have been accusations of subtle imperialism in various South American countries like Venezuela. The US has always supported Venezuela by selling them weapons, sending down people to help, and just been a big influence towards them and their people. All in all our country would not be the country today if had not been for imperialism. There would be no United States and we would still be under British rule. Also having been through imperialism we now have the option of applying to other countries as well.