The Causes of the American War of Independance
The Causes of the American War of Independence
There a many different views as to why there was an American War of Independence, but I think that it was not just one cause, but several, that set this particular bomb ticking.
There are several explanations, this is the first. The colonists were against paying more tax, so much so, that they argued fiercely enough to annul the tax on everything but tea. However, this is a weak argument, especially as the tax wasn’t that much. I think that it is more plausible that the Americans didn’t mind the price of the tea, but they did not accept the fact that they did not have a say in setting the tax, or that they had to obey the King. It was more the principle that they didn’t have a choice in the tax rather than the tax itself.
The second explanation is that the colonists loathed obeying the King (crown officials). Evidence for this is found in the accounts of the Boston Tea Party, a well-known event where a few men dressed up as native Americans and poured all of the tea that was on a ship into the sea, this was a massive rebellion against the crown, and shows us that they found the King tyrannical. Nevertheless, Naill Ferguson stresses the fact that this was a reluctant revolution, so the apparent ‘tyranny’, can’t have been that bad. The Americans even gave the British an olive branch to show that they wanted peace, but also equality.
Another possible explanation for this is that the American hated the snobbery of British authorities. The King ignored all of the Americans’ protests, they felt as if they were being treated as animals. One man said ‘we won’t be their Negroes’. The ‘battle of Lexington’ showed the Americans the authorities did NOT see them as Englishmen, they saw them as a lower class of humans. However, the Americans never actually mentioned any snobbery of the British, they just say that they were treated badly.
The road to revolution built slowly over time. Many events fed the growing desire of the
There a many different views as to why there was an American War of Independence, but I think that it was not just one cause, but several, that set this particular bomb ticking.
There are several explanations, this is the first. The colonists were against paying more tax, so much so, that they argued fiercely enough to annul the tax on everything but tea. However, this is a weak argument, especially as the tax wasn’t that much. I think that it is more plausible that the Americans didn’t mind the price of the tea, but they did not accept the fact that they did not have a say in setting the tax, or that they had to obey the King. It was more the principle that they didn’t have a choice in the tax rather than the tax itself.
The second explanation is that the colonists loathed obeying the King (crown officials). Evidence for this is found in the accounts of the Boston Tea Party, a well-known event where a few men dressed up as native Americans and poured all of the tea that was on a ship into the sea, this was a massive rebellion against the crown, and shows us that they found the King tyrannical. Nevertheless, Naill Ferguson stresses the fact that this was a reluctant revolution, so the apparent ‘tyranny’, can’t have been that bad. The Americans even gave the British an olive branch to show that they wanted peace, but also equality.
Another possible explanation for this is that the American hated the snobbery of British authorities. The King ignored all of the Americans’ protests, they felt as if they were being treated as animals. One man said ‘we won’t be their Negroes’. The ‘battle of Lexington’ showed the Americans the authorities did NOT see them as Englishmen, they saw them as a lower class of humans. However, the Americans never actually mentioned any snobbery of the British, they just say that they were treated badly.
The road to revolution built slowly over time. Many events fed the growing desire of the