Events Leading Up To The American Revolution

During the time period leading up to the American Revolution, British colonists were clearly unhappy with the way they were being treated. From the excessive taxes imposed upon them to Britain’s enforcement of unfair rules, colonists were looking for a way to gain independence from Great Britain. There were numerous events that happened before the first shots of the American Revolution were fired, and I believe that each individual event pushed the colonists closer to exhaustion from the rules of Great Britain. Despite being pushed to the edge by Great Britain, the colonists sprung forward with their determination of gaining their independence. One of the first major events that led up to the British colonists wanting their independence was
In order to keep the company afloat, in May 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act. This did away with all of the remaining importation burdens on tea arriving in England and resulted in lowering the selling price to buyers. The Tea Act also authorized the company to sell its tea straight to the buyers rather than through suppliers. Once again, the colonists were not happy with another tax. They felt that the British were trying to take advantage of their weaknesses. Their unhappiness led to the events on December 16 where roughly fifty men gathered. They disguised themselves as Indians and armed themselves with tomahawks. They broke open chests and poured forty-five tons of tea into the water. Following the Boston Tea Party, the British government quickly enacted the Intolerable Acts. The first of this act was enacted on April 1, 1774 and demanded the navy to shut down the Boston Harbor unless the town organized a way to pay for the destroyed tea by June 1. The second part of this act repealed the Massachusetts charter and reorganized the government. The colony’s legislature would now be chosen by the crown and towns could not hold more than one meeting a year unless it was approved by the governor. The third part of the new acts allowed any person charged with murder while implementing royal power in Massachusetts to be tried in England or in other
There were fifty-six delegates in all and their objective was to find a way to protect the colonies’ rights. They started by ratifying a set of speeches called the Suffolk Resolves. They vowed that the colonies did not have to comply with any of the Intolerable Acts, a temporary government would gather all taxes until the Massachusetts charter was re-established, and defensive actions should be taken if the royal troops tried to attack. The Continental Congress also chose to boycott all British importations after December 1 as well as to stop almost all exportations to Britain and its West Indies properties after September 1775 unless there was a resolution to the issues. In 1776, Thomas Paine published his famous pamphlet, “Common Sense”. It explained the importance of the colonist gaining their independence from Great Britain and it was the final push they needed to do so. On July 4, 1776, twelve colonies embraced the Declaration of Independence. New York embraced it on July 19, 1776. The American war for independence continued for five years and in the end, they were successful in gaining their