Causes Of The American Revolution Project. by Santiago Cuevas

The French and Indian War

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-05 15:47:01 UTC

The French and Indian War was fought between France with its Native American allies against Great Britain over territory in the Ohio river valley. The war started in 1754 but for a while back the British and the French were on bad terms because the Ohio River valley was a land that both countries said that they owned it, so they built forts near the Ohio River valley so that they can capture it. There were skirmishes here and there until a young George Washington of the colonies was sent by the governor of Virginia to tell the French at Fort LeBoeuf and when he arrived and delivered the letter the French and when their plead fell to deaf ears and they were told to leave. Then the governor told him to go back and make them leave and after they came back they found that the French had made a fort named Duquesne and after a fight they got some prisoners and quickly built a fort named Necessity. A while later the French did a surprise attack and made Washington surrender and go back to Virginia. After that the British called war against the French in North America and this would be easy since they had 13 colonies in the continent to help them against the French and for the next 7 years they were at war. In the beginning the French were winning but later on the British started to win and in 1763 the British won and made the French sign the The Treaty of Paris of 1763 to make them leave the American Continent and to give up their land in North America. The British were happy that they won including the colonies, but the cost of the war was very expensive and because of that they started to tax the colonies with the Taxes such as Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts but they were controversial in the colonies because it was out of nowhere and it was expensive for some people. One of the most famous acts of rebellion against the British came because of the taxes and that event was the Boston tea party in 1773.

No Taxation without Representation.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-05 16:42:47 UTC

The Taxation Without Representation movement was started because of the taxes that the British imposed on the colonies because Britain was in debt because of the French and Indian War and because of that they needed a way to get money so they taxed the colonies on goods, the first of the taxes were the Sugar Acts Of 1764 and what this tax did was tax sugar and molasses that were not shipped by the British but in return the colonists were angry because they did not want to be taxed and protested. The next act was the Currency Act. What that act did was get rid of the colonies currency and replace it with Britain currency and because of this act it messed up the economy at the colonies and this made the colonists annoyed, especially merchants. The next controversial act was the Quartering Acts; this was very controversial among the colonies. I'll explain about this later on. The tax act after that was the Stamp Act and what it did was tax important documents and you had to get a Stamp on them, such as newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, playing cards, and even dice. Because of this many colonists among the colonies started protesting, rioting, and boycotting British goods and their motto was No Taxation without Representation. During that time period of the colonists protesting the Sons Of Liberty were created, the Sons Of Liberty were an organization that was going against Britain's taxes and what they did to the Tax collectors was either harass them or infamously tar and feather them. The year afterward in the year 1766 since it was more expensive to deal with the colonists than to get money from taxing them Britain decided to remove the stamp act and everyone was happy except Britain who had an ace up their sleeve. After Britain removed the Stamp Act the colonists were happy and stopped boycotting British goods, on that same day that Britain got rid of the act they made a new act called the Declaratory Act and what this did was that Parliament was allowed to make laws that tighten the colonies and the colonists could not do anything about it, this act was most likely done out of spite against the colonies. A year later in 1767 Britain decided to make a new act and this was called the Townshend Acts and what this act did was tax 5 things and they were as follows: Glass, Lead, Paint, Paper, and Tea. These taxes added more wood to the fire of that of the colonist resentment of Britain and her taxes and some wanted to leave Britain, what the colonists did was boycott British goods until the act the removed, for the next three years type colonists were getting more mad at Britain. In 1770 3 years later after making the Townshend acts Britain was not in a good shape because since the colonists were boycotting British goods Britain was not getting the money they needed they got rid of most of the things taxed except for tea, this would later be one of the catalyst's that caused one of the most famous cases of rebellion against British taxes.

Writs of Assistance.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-06 16:39:16 UTC

The Writs of Assistance were a court given warrant that allowed British soldiers to check colonists houses to see if they had any illegal goods. The problem was that most of the time the warrants were unjust and many British soldiers could make up anything and if it was just in their eyes then they were allowed to check the house. This was illegal in the colonists eyes because it invaded the private property of its people and for no just reason. This Writs made colonists more mad at the British because now they are taxing them and now they are just going in houses for no just reason. These Writs of Assistance violated personal property.

There was a congress that represented 9 out of the 13 colonies, and they made the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, what did was state grievances towards the king and that the colonies have the same rights as a British citizen. Because of these actions of the act the founding fathers added the 4th amendment in the constitution. Here is the amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”.

Quartering Acts.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-06 21:59:04 UTC

The Quartering Acts was a rule made by Parliament to where you had to house, feed, drink and transport British soldiers in either your house or in barracks when they asked and you could not say no or else you'd be in trouble. Due to this many colonists hated to British even more and resented the redcoats and many more wanted to leave Britain.Because of this hated practice when the founding fathers made the constitution they made the 3rd amendment and this is what is says “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

The Boston Massacre

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-07 01:14:49 UTC

The Boston Massacre was caused by disgruntled colonists in boston because since the British put their red coats in Boston and since they were being kinda rude with the Quartering Act and the Writs of Assistance and because of those rules the people of boston started to hate them and on one fateful night in March 5 there was a protest against some redcoats led by Captain Preston and while a crowd of colonist were harassing them by throwing things that were kinda damaging, during this somebody threw a wooden bat a soldier and he fired out of anger then a group who was behind the soldiers started to say to the red coats to fire and they got confused and thought it was Preston and they fired into the crowd of people. The first person to die was a free black man named Crispus Attucks, after that they got a couple of more deaths and at the end five civilians died. After this event the soldiers went to prison and went to court their head lawyer was a patriot John Adams. He managed to get most of them free. This event caused a massive outrage among the colonies especially due to the efforts of Paul Revere and his art of the event that made the redcoats look like evil people, this even made the news and this further separated the colonist with the British and many more wanted to leave. This even was one of the main reasons why the war started.

The Boston Tea Party.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-07 02:48:05 UTC

The Boston tea party was an act of rebellion that was caused by 2 reasons. The first reason is that when Britain made the tea tax and what the tea tax did was lower the tax on British shipped tea and this was used by British merchants to their advantage and this was very disliked by the colonies because they did not want to be obligated by the british to pay a certain country more than others who might have better tea. The second reason why is because the company that the British were helping and it was called the east India tea company, the company was getting into financial trouble so they made that rule just for them so they don't get bankrupt. When British ships landed on the Boston harbor the colonists wanted to bring it back because they did not want to pay for it but the British insisted that they do. So the Sons of Liberty who were made by the colonists because they hated the taxes that the British imposed on them a couple of years back, so decided to plan an act of rebellion, so on December 16 they dressed up like Indians and threw the tea into the harbor and it was very expensive and it basically ruined the company.

The Intolerable/Coercive Acts.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-07 02:54:12 UTC

The Intolerable/Coercive Acts were created by parliament to severely punish Boston for the Boston tea party that happened the year prior. What this act did was 1 punish the economy by closing Boston harbor until they paid back for how much tea they destroyed, 2 for the governor instead of the people choosing the governor they instead gave the power to the crown to appointed a governor, 3 they did not allow town meetings at all unless it was approved by the crown appointed governor, 4 instead of a British law enforcement officer being trialed in the colonies for a crime that they commited, they made to where they would be trialed overseas in Britain, this was very unfair because since the trip was very far away by the time the arrived nobody cared enough to trial them and set them free basically making it very easy for red coats to commit a crime and let out scot free. These acts made the colonists very mad at Britain for punishing Boston so hard for no reason, the people that were mad the most were the bostonians because they lost their economy and if a red coat does something bad he's free. Because of that it further added to flames of rebellion and a lot of colonists wanted to leave Britain once and for all.

The Olive Branch Petition.

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-07 03:24:01 UTC

The Olive Branch petition was created by The Second Continental Congress to appeal to King George The 3rd. The reason why they wanted to appeal to him is because since they are in a war they wanted to end it as soon as possible and peacefully, because when you are going against the strongest army in the globe you'd want to not fight them especially when you have a ragtag army. They made it for him specially and here is what the first and last part says. We your Majesty’s faithful subjects of the colonies of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode island and Providence plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the counties of New Castle Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general Congress, entreat your Majestys gracious attention to this our humble petition.We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us releif from our afflicting fears and jealousies occasioned by the system before mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of your dominions, with all humility submitting to your Majesty’s wise consideration, whether it may not be expedient for facilitating those important purposes, that your Majesty be pleased to direct some mode by which the united applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of their common councils, may be improved into a happy and permanent reconciliation; and that in the meantime measures be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your Majesty’s subjects; and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majesty's colonies be repealed: For by such arrangements as your Majesty's wisdom can form for collecting the united sense of your American people, we are convinced, your Majesty would receive such satisfactory proofs of the disposition of the colonists towards their sovereign and the parent state, that the wished for opportunity would soon be restored to them, of evincing the sincerity of their professions by every testimony of devotion becoming the most dutiful subjects and the most affectionate colonists.

The union between our Mother Country and these colonies, and the energy of mild and just government, produced benefits so remarkably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency and increase, that the wonder and envy of other Nations were excited, while they beheld Great Britain rising to a power the most extraordinary the world had ever known. When they sent it, four months later when he received it. What he did next basically set off the war effort. He didn't even read it and sent it back without even looking or hearing what it says and he said that since the colonies are rebelling its war.

When the colonists found out they were enraged and that gave a reason to fight even more and the war was on with no chance of a peaceful ending with both sides on good terms.

Citations

scuevas2336 — 2025-02-07 03:29:29 UTC

“Founders Online: Second Petition from Congress to the King, 8 July 1775.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0114. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Congress Adopts Olive Branch Petition | July 5, 1775.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-adopts-olive-branch-petition. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Intolerable Acts.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/event/Intolerable-Acts. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 3 – ‘Quartering of Troops.’” Ronald Reagan, www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-3-quartering-troops#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNo%20Soldier%20shall%2C%20in%20time,controversial%20element%20of%20the%20Constitution. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Quartering Act.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 19 Dec. 2024, www.britannica.com/event/Quartering-Act.

“Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 4 – ‘the Right to Privacy.’” Ronald Reagan, www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-4-right-privacy#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20right%20of%20the%20people,and%20the%20persons%20or%20things. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Writ of Assistance.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/topic/writ-of-assistance. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Stamp Act Imposed on American Colonies | March 22, 1765.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stamp-act-imposed-on-american-colonies. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

“Timeline: Articles and Essays: Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789: Digital Collections: Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collections/continental-congress-and-constitutional-convention-from-1774-to-1789/articles-and-essays/timeline/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.

U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/incidents. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.