The American Revolution- Whose Revolution Was It?
There are different schools of thoughts to explain why the revolution started, but out of all the schools I agree the most with the Imperial School. The Imperial School is the result of the clash of two empires, the British and the Americans, with different viewpoints. The British wanted to have control over the Americans while the Americans wanted to be independent from the British, a free nation. This clash in viewpoints resulted in revolution which later results in America’s independence and transformation in society.
Americans were guided by the British having the same beliefs and doing what they were told. Shortly, this would all change when the government started to make acts. These acts were passed due to the debt (140 million pounds) of the Seven Years’ War. In Britain taxes were common and were even getting raised but, for Americans it was unfamiliar to have such a thing as taxes to help the government economically. It all started out with the Sugar Act in 1764, it increased the duty on sugar being imported from the West Indies. The colonist didn’t approve of this act and started to protest and as a result the tax started to lower, later it died out. Protest didn’t stop just there but continued once the Quartering Act came out in 1765. This made colonist provide food to British troops. While making this new act they started to enforce a new tax called the stamp tax. This tax was not for the debt, but to support the new military force. The tax was for all legal documents to be stamped which certified that the tax was paid. Again, the Americans began to protest but this time they took action. They gathered in assemblies and refused to do as the Quartering Act asked for and voted they would only provide only half of the materials they were asked for to give to the troops. This refusal to do as they were told later came known as Greenville’s aggression. The British, seeing as the colonist were taking control over the colony, began to have admiralty
Americans were guided by the British having the same beliefs and doing what they were told. Shortly, this would all change when the government started to make acts. These acts were passed due to the debt (140 million pounds) of the Seven Years’ War. In Britain taxes were common and were even getting raised but, for Americans it was unfamiliar to have such a thing as taxes to help the government economically. It all started out with the Sugar Act in 1764, it increased the duty on sugar being imported from the West Indies. The colonist didn’t approve of this act and started to protest and as a result the tax started to lower, later it died out. Protest didn’t stop just there but continued once the Quartering Act came out in 1765. This made colonist provide food to British troops. While making this new act they started to enforce a new tax called the stamp tax. This tax was not for the debt, but to support the new military force. The tax was for all legal documents to be stamped which certified that the tax was paid. Again, the Americans began to protest but this time they took action. They gathered in assemblies and refused to do as the Quartering Act asked for and voted they would only provide only half of the materials they were asked for to give to the troops. This refusal to do as they were told later came known as Greenville’s aggression. The British, seeing as the colonist were taking control over the colony, began to have admiralty
References: David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas Bailey. (2006- 2010) The American Pageant 14th edition. Boston, MA