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Why did the Americans revolt?

Updated: 8/18/2023
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12y ago

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Dating from the early 18th century through the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the growing colonies began to resent British rule and control. The colonists were being taxed, restricted in their trade, and subjected to laws they had no say in writing. Following the Boston Massacre of protesters (1770), general dissatisfaction grew. New taxes led to the Boston Tea Party (1773), after which some colonial legislatures lost their power and the number of British troops was increased. Tensions escalated into actual conflict at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

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The Declaration of Independence (1776) listed the reasons for rebelling against the British:

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

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12y ago
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13y ago

The American colonies revolted for many reasons. A main reason is that they were fed up with all the taxes.

Ex:

Stamp Act: tax on all legal documents

Sugar Act: tax on sugar

Townshend Act: tax on glass, paper, etc.

Tea Act: tax on tea

"Coercive" or Intolerable Acts: closed Boston ports until tea was colonists paid for the destroyed tea (Boston Tea Party). These acts also subjected the colonist to the military government and authorized the housing of British troops in American homes.

More:

Boston Massacre occured; Redcoats fired upon (unarmed) colonists who threw snowballs at them; 5 were killed

Navigation Acts: restricted use of forign shipping for trade between Britain and it's colonies (the New World)

These all led to boycotts and riots; people were very unhappy with what was happening

There are many other reasons but these ones are pretty important; hope this helps

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15y ago

The following events, while not the only events, may be considered major causes of the conflict that developed between Great Britain and the American colonies resulting in the Americans declaring independence from the Mother Country and the American Revolutionary War. For more detailed information about each event, see the sites listed below. 1. The Colonial wars for Empire, in the 1600-1700s, ending with the French and Indian War (Seven Years War) 1763. 2. The British Policy of Salutary Neglect--failure to enforce the Navigation Laws. 3. The slow but steady erosion of British control over the American Colonies. 4. Pontiac’s Rebellion and the Proclamation of 1763. 5. The Sugar Act of 1764 6. The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Stamp Act Congress in the colonies. 7. Colonial virtual representation versus actual representation in Parliament. 8. The Boston Massacre, 1770. 9. The Gaspee Affair, 1772 10. The Tea Act of 1773 and the Boston Tea Party. 11. The Intolerable (Coercive) Acts, 1774. 12. Meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. 13. The Battles of Lexington and Concord.

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12y ago

The Americans revolted because when news that the french had revolted against there king had got around it gave them courage and belief that they could be free of the british so they revolted and won

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13y ago

because the british empire was being unfair to them and all they wanted from them was to gain power. they like pie and were bullied

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15y ago

Taxation without representation was the main reason, they thought that they were being unfairly taxed, when in accuallity, the folks of England were being taxed way more.

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14y ago

Because England sent over the Cleveland Browns, and they SUCK.

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13y ago

They were tired of rule from a monarch that was very far away. Who while failing to listen to and addressing their grievances was imposing higher taxes and restrictions.

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12y ago

the world came to a end

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