Reasons For Independence From Great Britain

On July 4 1776 in Philadelphia the continental congress and the founding fathers sing the final draft of the Declaration of Independence separating them from britain. The colonist were sick of Great britain’s king using unfair power on them. What were the reason the colonist declared their independence from britain? The colonist wanted independence because they wanted liberty, freedom of choice, and peace.

The British had sent more than 10,000 troops to North America by the end of the French and Indian War. The British felt like they had spent a great deal of money in protecting the American colonists. They were in debt around 140 million pounds. To pay off all of their debt the British decided to increase the enforcement of existing taxes on the Colonists and impose additional taxes. The British issued The Proclamation of 1763 which meant the colonists couldn’t cheat the Indians out of land. They also establish a border in where they could not buy land. This made the colonist mad because it made them feel like the British were interfering and trying to limit their economic growth.

The French and Indian war changed the relationship between Britain and the American colonies by restoring England’s power over the colonies, creating trade restrictions between America and other nations, and forming new thoughts of revolution in the colonists.

Throughout the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the relationship between the British and the American colonies underwent many radical changes. This war drew the British into America to fight the French alongside of the American colonists. Once the fighting began, the vast economic, political, and ideological differences between the colonists and their mother country of Great Britain surfaced. The French and Indian War impacted the political correlation between Britain and the American colonies because the colonies desired a new democratic government in place of the former English monarchy. Additionally, the war altered the economic relations between the two because of the establishment of numerous British taxations to pay for the war

The French and Indian War had an almost innumerable number of effects on the political, economic and ideological relations between Britain and the American colonies. The war touched the entirety of America’s diverse population; from the Native Americans to the soldiers. Some were gladdened by the invigorated ties to England while others were enraged by the economic situation. There is no doubt that the war truly altered and revolutionized the American colonies.

The French and Indian war, fought from 1754 to 1763, negatively altered political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American Colonies. Most of these issues can be connected to the large influx of land in North America, nearly everything to the East of the Mississippi River ( as seen in the maps of North America in 1754 and 1763 found in Document A), conquered by Britain and the Colonies by the end of the war. With the colonies rapidly increasing in size, it became more and more difficult for Britain to control them an entire ocean away. North American began to take on a life of its own as in became increasingly apparent to both sides that they had conflicting goals. Further complications ensued with Britain’s attempts to properly

Thomas Paine believed that the US needed independence mainly for three reasons. First of all, the US had larger land than Britain. Britain wanted the resources from the US to build the mainland of Britain. Also the Britain government was fighting with the colony people. Thomas Paine thought that it was unfair if the British fight with them and take resources from them at the same time. If they got chance to be fully independent, they can trade their resources with other countries in the world and became powerful. Secondly, he thought if they did not break with Britain, they would not able to get help from other countries in Europe because other countries did not want Britain to be the most powerful country in Europe. If they broke with Britain, other country will help them to fight against Britain. Third reason was they just want to be an independent country. They did not want to be ruled by other people anymore.

Today we look back at the American Revolution and picture a united people fighting for inalienable rights, but to grasp the impact that Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” had upon his contemporaries we must understand the situation in the American colonies in 1776. When Paine wrote his pamphlet, the colonist and The Parliament in London, were almost 10 years into a debate over the rights of limited self-government by the colonies. In the months preceding the publication of Paine’s pamphlet the situation had steadily worsened until the April 19th, 1775 armed confrontation between Massachusetts colonists and British Army soldiers. By the end of that day, blood had been shed by both sides, and armed colonists placed the British garrison in Boston under siege. Despite this violence, most colonists viewed the events as a part of a struggle between Englishmen that would be resolved with the continued allegiance of the colonies to the Crown, but with more favorable treatment from London. It was with this popular mindset throughout the colonies, that Paine would deliver his “Common Sense” pamphlet arguing for complete independence from England. Paine understood that to make his argument resonate he needed to appeal to the public in a manner that had yet to be done.

The American Revolution was far from being the first conflict to occur on the soil of the New World. There were multiple skirmishes, battles, and official wars fought in the territory that resulted in severe bloodshed before the idea of the American Revolution was even conceived. One of the most significant of these wars was the French and Indian War or as it was known in Europe, the Seven Years’ War. At its conclusion in 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed. The English received a substantial amount of new land for the Empire (94). However, with the acquisition of new land and a significant amount of debt from the extensive war efforts, the British government had to reevaluate many of their policies (95-96). After the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the British were confident in their mastery of North America. However by attempting to tighten their control over their American colonies they initiated a series of poorly thought out programs and policies which resulted in a disastrous rebellion.

This act was the first attempt by the British government to handle the debt caused by the French and Indian War within the colonies. The act attempted to stop the illegal smuggling of non-British imports, like foreign wine and raw materials. It also included the right for the English government to put a smuggler on trial without a jury, because an American jury would have sympathy for the person on trial. This can be compared to the Molasses Act of 1733, which was widely unsuccessful because colonist resistance and evasion of the act’s enforcement. It was made largely by the insistence of wealthy plantation owners in the British West Indies. This was significant for the colonies because molasses was used in New England for making rum, and the molasses trade had been growing out of the British market. Colonists traded within New England and the Middle colonies,

In result of The Seven Years’ War Britain controlled American trade and territory. In order to pay for the expenses of the war several taxation acts and military presence were implemented such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Currency Act, Quartering Act and the presence of British troops at the colonies. Consequently, Americans who thought these actions violated their political and constitutional liberties opposed these policies with petitions, boycotts, and resistance strategies known as the Imperial Crisis. In January 1776 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was composed to convince Americans of the need for independence from British rule and establishment of democracy. This pamphlet

In 46 Pages author Scott Liell is able to poignantly illustrate the colonies metamorphosis from a dependent arm of the English Empire to an independent country, the catalyst for which was Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Liell is able to not only articulate the turning point of the American consensus towards independence, but he also very intelligibly depicts the sentiments of all facets of colonial dogma and the torrential effect that Common Sense had in loosening the cement that held those beliefs. Using fantastic examples of the opinions of Tories, Whigs, and those ambivalent towards independence, Liell efficiently and

The French and Indian War, a colonial manifestation of the same forces and tensions that erupted in the European Seven Years' War, was, quite simply, a war about imperialism. The French and the English were competing for land and trading rights in North America; these strivings resulted in a great deal of disputed land, particularly that of the rich Ohio Valley. Each nation saw this territory as vital in its effort to increase its own power and wealth while simultaneously limiting the strength of its rival. Although the war itself therefore stemmed from a fairly simple motivation, its consequences were far- reaching. The English victory in the war decided the colonial fate of North America, and yet at the same time sowed the seeds of the eventual colonial revolution. After the war, the British ended their century-long policy of salutary neglect, attempting to keep the colonials under a more watchful eye. The British also raised taxes in an effort to pay for the war. Both of these postwar policies resulted in massive colonial discontent and added to the budding nationalism that eventually exploded in the Revolutionary War.

It was April 5th, 1764 and war had just begun. There was a new law, called the molasses and sugar act. While under the molasses and sugar act, colonial merchants were forced to pay six-pence for every gallon of molasses they ordered. They only went through with it to make their best drink; RUM. But, most colonists attempted to buy French molasses because it was about 4 dollars cheaper.

The Molasses Act was put into place to put taxes on all rums, molasses and sugars on all of Britain’s colonies. This caused frustration withthe New England colonies, because they imported a large amount of molasses from the Caribbean. This had made the new act difficult to enforce because merchant would simply ignore the act and it led to bribing and smuggling to import and export goods being taxed. (93)