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Causes of Rebel 1776

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Evaluate the relative importance of two of the following as factors prompting Americans to rebel in 1776. Parliamentary Taxation The legacy of colonial religious and political ideas British military measures Restrictions of Civil Liberty Some say that the Revolution was destined to happen ever since Settlers set foot on this continent, others argue that it would not have happened if it weren't for a set of issues that finally drove the colonists to revolt. Ultimately, Britain lost control in 1765 when they gave in to the Stamp Act Congress’s boycotts against parliamentary taxation and gave them the idea that they had the power to run a country. To a lesser degree, Salutary Neglect led to the conception of a legacy of …show more content…

In 1770 Lord North took over for Townshend and let the highly hated Quartering Acts expire. North was off to a good start keeping the fire for independence down in the colonies until he imposed the Tea Tax to keep the East India Company from going bankrupt. This act more or less forced the colonists to buy the East India Company's tea instead of smuggling Dutch tea as they had been doing for years. This drastically affected many colonists' incomes and sparked even more hatred. Famously this resulted in the Boston Tea party, an act of the Sons of Liberty against Britain and their harsh ‘taxation without representation'. For many of the colonists, this was the last straw and they were through with Britain's rule and restrictions upon their lives. Yet another factor leading to the revolution, though possibly of lesser importance, was the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas. Regarding religion, colonists were outcasts from the mainland from the beginning. This is because the majority of them were religious pariahs eager to escape oppressions from the Puritan Church. However, by the time of the revolution, the colonies were not only separated by belief from Great Britain, but they were also religiously fragmented. The Anglican Church, the official church of some colonies often times served as a “prop” for kingly authority. This angered Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, Catholics, and virtually

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