American Revolution Dbq

As humans, it is in our nature to look back on our experiences and our past knowledge in order to build or construct something for ourselves. When the colonists separated from British rule, it is evident that the ideas they were attempting to escape ended up following them as they began settling into their new society. European ethnocentrism created an immense amount of hardships for the colonists as it was so deeply ingrained that it made it extremely difficult for American self-rule to become feasible. Between 1600 and 1678, it became evident that there was disagreement between the colonists on a number of topics including diversity and the ideas of expansion and disruption, which made it challenging for the nation to be united. Unknowingly,
Like other European nations, England revolved around mercantilism which was the idea of being a self-sufficient nation by exporting more goods than importing. Between 1651 and 1673, the Parliament Navigation Acts were instilled which set forth three essentials of the mercantilist theory which included that only English and colonial merchants could trade in the colonies legally, certain American products were only to be sold to England or other English colonies and lastly, foriegns foods sold to the British colonies were to be imported first through England (Pg. 76). With these new laws in place, colonial America became even more heavily dependent on England for expansion and economic growth since the colonies could only trade with them. In addition, the concept of mercantilism revolves around the idea there is a limited amount of affluence, therefore if one nation gains, another must lose. During this time, England had full control over the colonies, making them the superior nation. Because of the power England had, the colonies were unable to export goods that would compete with English goods. With England at the center of trade, the circumstances they created made it nearly impossible for colonial America to flourish financially. Colonial America’s only hope for a successful economy lied on the
One factor that created dependency upon Britain were the Parliament Navigation Acts, which seem to have been extended by the Townshend Acts proposed in 1967, which applied heavy focus on trade goods such as paper,glass, and tea (Pg.122). These new laws passed by the England would negatively impact the American colonies with new taxes but benefit the mother country but not the thirteen colonies. There was a negative response from Colonial Americans toward these acts, in which people, specifically John Dickinson expressed that there is a difference between regulating colonial trade and taxation (Pg.124). Disagreement with the British Parliament, resistance was