The Beginning of the American Revolution

The Beginning of the American Revolution
“The American Revolution was the struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies fought in order to win independence from Great Britain and become the United States.” (American Revolution). But why did they want independence from Great Britain in the first place? What did the British do to anger the colonists? For starters, the colonists were already independent because of the lack of attention that Britain had given them in the beginning. (England’s main incentive for building the colonies was for their profits, and that’s all they really cared about.) So when Britain started to control the colonists, most of them didn’t think they should have to listen to them because they were doing fine without their rules. Britain didn’t even give them rights that the people in England had. On top of that they put high taxes on items without letting the colonists vote on them. The combination of Great Britain being too controlling, not giving colonists their rights, and taxing colonists without representation are what lead to the American Revolution.
There isn’t a specific date as to when the pre-revolution started, but historians can conclude it to be around the 1750’s when the English government tried to control colonial trade with a series of laws known as the Navigation Acts. After trying to use mercantilism (where colonies sold natural resources to Great Britain and Great Britain forced them to buy the finished products) England found out colonists were still trading with the Spanish, Dutch and the French. The acts that Parliament passed basically stated that all goods coming to England from Asia, Africa, or America must be carried in English ships with an English captain and crew, and it had to go through England so they could tax the goods. These acts upset many of the colonists.
The first event that really angered colonists enough to the point where they thought of separating from Britain was the Proclamation Line of 1763. Britain had just won the French and Indian war and had gained a lot of new territory, including land west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists were eager to settle onto this land; however Britain didn’t want them to use it. They wanted to avoid conflicts with the Native Americans and they thought that separating the Natives and colonists would be the right thing. Not allowing them to settle in that area “gave Britain control of migration westward.” (Ayers, de la Teja, Shulzinger, and White) and also allowed them to control more of the colonists. After the French and Indian War not only was Britain left with more land, but they were also left thousands of soldiers in the colonies. Britain kept them there to “protect” the colonists, but many people felt like they were there to intimidate them. Having the soldiers in the colonies became an even bigger problem to the colonists when they had pay for the troops themselves. To accomplish this Parliament passed the Sugar Act which put a tax on sugar and molasses imported from the French and Spanish West Indies.
By 1765 Parliament had come up with a new way to tax the colonists. This plan was called the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act “required a government tax stamp on all legal documents, such as contracts and licenses. Newspapers, almanacs, and even printed sermons and playing cards had to have the official stamps.” (Ayers, de la Teja, Shulzinger, and White). Colonists were outraged; this was the first time they were being directly taxed and they weren’t afraid to speak out against it. Sons and Daughters of Liberty organized protests and one of their tactics, boycotting British goods, forced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. However, Parliament still thought they had the right to tax them. That same year the Quartering Act was passed which forced colonists to allow the British soldiers live with them and eat their. Once again the colonists were angry with the British.
The next major event that was part of this pre-revolutionary epoch was the Townshed Acts. One part of these acts placed taxes on tea, lead, glass, paper, and paint. To the colonists this was another case of taxation without representation and they were angry. They were even angrier when the Townshed Acts brought back writs of assistance. The writs of assistance allowed officers to search through colonists’ homes to look for smuggled goods, violating their rights of privacy. (A right that was cherished in England) In March 1770, most of the Townshed Acts were repealed but to show that they still had the right to tax the colonies, Parliament kept the taxes on tea. (Ayers, de la Teja, Shulzinger, and White) The Boston Massacre also occurred in March of 1770. Hundreds of towns people were taunting the redcoats (British soldiers) and at one point of the riot someone supposedly yelled “fire” and the soldiers began to shoot at the colonists. Only five people were actually killed, but colonists who were fed up with the British and wanted another reason to dislike them, exaggerated what really happened. Other colonists, who did know what actually happened, believed the played up story which put more fuel to their ongoing fire of hatred for the British.
The last acts that Parliament passed before the battles of Lexington and Concord (which would signify war between the colonists and Britain), were the Intolerable Acts. In 1774, officials in London were extremely angry at the colonists after the Boston Tea Party and created sets of laws to punish them. These laws included closing the Boston port and giving royal government more power over Massachusetts. In the end, they backfired because they only brought the colonists closer together. That year the First Continental Congress held their first meeting to discuss how they were going to retaliate against Britain. Before they could meet again, King George III decided to take action against the colonist who were rebelling; especially people like John Hancock and Samuel Adams. He sent General Gage to attack the colonists on April 8, 1775. When the British troops came to attack the colonists they were surprised to find that their “surprise attack” wasn’t a surprise. That night the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.
After years of fighting the colonists, with the help of France and Spain, won and became independent from Great Britain. If the British weren’t controlling, and if they gave colonists their rights, and didn’t tax them, then America might be completely different. Luckily they did, because every American today can enjoy his or her freedom and unalienable rights!

Works Cited Page
"American Revolution." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Columbia University Press, n.d. Web. 4 June 2013.
Ayers, White, and De La Teja, Shulzinger. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Web. 4 June 2013.

Cited: Page "American Revolution." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Columbia University Press, n.d. Web. 4 June 2013. Ayers, White, and De La Teja, Shulzinger. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Web. 4 June 2013.