How The Revolutionary War Begun Essay Research

How The Revolutionary War Begun Essay, Research Paper

How The Revolutionary War Begun

Following the French and Indian War, or otherwise known as The Seven Years

War, Britain was in major debt as with many countries after war. On the other hand the

Colonies were thriving from trade and agriculture. At the end of the war the parliament in

England had no organized plan to reduce the enormous debt they had bestowed upon

themselves. Financing the French and Indian War had almost doubled the national debt.

The parliament had stumbled into the beginning of the Revolutionary War without even

knowing it. They were looking in an entirely different direction when the colonies

exploded with a rage that eventually turned into the American Revolution.

The Seven Years War s outcome also affected the impacted the Revolution by giving soldiers experience that would later help them lead armies and make decisions to win the Revolution. Among these men were the prestigious names of Paul Revere, Ethan Allen, Horatio Gates, Charles Lee, Daniel Morgan and the man who is known as our founding father George Washington. During the French and Indian War Washington was assigned a mission which was a success and he was considered a hero which later helped his success in the revolution and the presidency later on .

The King s minister were trying to find a way to finance the King s military

policy. During the French and Indian Wars England had paid for the defense of the

Colonies as well as providing most of the troops and leadership in the war. But, rather

than demobilize at the end of the war, King George III decided to keep the army at 3/4

strength. Eighty five regiments were kept on alert in case of renewed hostilities between

the British and French. There was still the problem of paying for the regiments though.

They could not tax the countryside any more because of current taxes that were already

too great. The solution, however, was to station most of the army in Ireland and the

Colonies requiring locals to house and feed the soldiers. They also made up the Sugar

Act, Stamp Act and the Towshend Duties to cover the 359,000 needed yearly to sustain

the regiments in the Colonies.

The first of all the taxes or Acts was the American Revenue Act of 1784, or called the Sugar Act. It wasn t even a new tax even. It was a change of an old customs duty. In order to stop trade from the West Indies to the Colonies Parliament in 1733 had passed a protective tariff on sugar, molasses and other raw materials from the West Indies. To avoid paying the customs duty the colonists just smuggled in the goods. They objected to following these new duties because they had long acknowledged as legitimate. In the second place the sugar act reduced the duty on a gallon of molasses by 50%. The only thing was that mechanisms were put in place so they could collect the duty and the American shippers were forced to pay it. Objections were heard to the sugar act because it was said that it was revenue not regulation and so was illegitimate. the stamp act was legitimate . The tax was laid directly on the colonist purposely for raising revenue . What the tax did was make most papers illegal by making all legal documents have to have the particular stamp assigned to the nature of the document. It was forced upon documents, newspapers and pamphlets. In England that Stamp tax was a part of daily life and was collected without a hassle, but the American colonists did not take it lightly and protested it emphatically. Even the Loyalists protested the tax.

The Colonies even formed a congress called the Stamp Act Congress that protested daily in parliament against the stamp act. Angry mobs crowded streets and tarred and feathered many of the tax collectors. This all brought back the old suspicion that most tax collectors and officials were not collecting for the royal treasury but for their own pockets. Also they were enraged that it was Parliament that enacted the Stamp act and not the local legislature and thus began the phrase, No Taxation Without Representation .

Since the colonists could not represent themselves in Parliament then they had to form all taxes with a local legislature. This is the basis for the entire Revolutionary War. The British believed that Parliament was supreme over all of the English lands and had the divine right to rule over them without conflict. Although Parliament did have a representative for the Colonies the colonists did not believe in virtual representation. The problem was that the virtual representatives did not represent the colonies they represented what they thought of the colonies along with mainly thinking of themselves when they voted. In fact, they stood to benefit more from the taxation of the colonies because it would reduce their taxes and raise their wages.

Then all of a sudden in 1766 the controversy ended. William Pitt, the hero of the Seven Years War, made a speech that begged for the colonies right to tax themselves while affirming Parliament s supremacy in all other matters. Pitt s speech swayed everyone and the stamp act was repealed. On the same day, however, Parliament passed a Declaratory Act that gave them power over all legislative matters. The colonists

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