The Revolutionary War: The Events Leading To The American Revolution

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.

When the Britain passed the Royal Proclamation the colonists did not follow the law and still settled in the west. They pushed Cherokees out, paying no mind to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and kept moving west, which helped establish American nationalism. In the First Continental Congress, none of the colonies were talking about independence yet because all they wanted to do was resolve the issues. They began to take the idea of self-rule and participatory democracy into rule. The colonies began to think their rights were being taken away from them by Britain when Parliament and the King rejected their petition. They began to think ideas of freedom when British troops were being sent to the colonies to establish authorization by Parliament and the King. They didn’t think they could stand up to Britain because they were more powerful and the colonists didn’t have the proper kind of training or weapons. The thoughts of freedom became more real, after the Boston Massacre and after Lexington and Concord. When the colonists finally realized the British would use force to keep them in line and to keep control over them.

During the time period of 1600 to 1776, the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies changed massively. The relationship between Great Britain and the colonies changed greatly because of three main reasons: the relationships that the colonies and Great Britain were built on, the struggles that the colonists faced because of their relationships with Great Britain, and the anger that the colonists expressed because of the ridiculous taxes that they had to pay. Once the colonists realized that they were suffering under British rule, most of the colonists became eager to be independent from Great Britain. The colonists’ Second Continental Congress believed that the acts and taxes created by the British Parliament were unconstitutional, unjust, and unfair towards the colonists and because of that belief, the Declaration signers forever changed our country.

In regards to the American Revolution, the point that armed rebellion became inevitable arrived when after nearly five constant years of American colonist protesting. American 's had enough and needed to take a stand for the numerous inequalities they were forced to deal with. It was foreseeable that the American Revolution took place due to the unfair taxes that the British were giving Americans. Also, England was not allowing Americans their freedom, along with violence and the political dominance by the Parliament over the colonies by announcing the Stamp Act in 1765, which happened to nearly affect all Americans tremendously.

Between 1770 and 1776, resistance to imperial change turned into a full-on revolution. The American Revolution, also known as the Revolutionary War, was a time of revolting and political uprising, in which the 13 colonies separated from the British Empire, forming the independent nation known as the United States of America. Though the American Revolution began because the colonies wanted independence from Britain, many important historical events and revolts also lead to the tensions and resistance to what resulted in freedom and independence for the colonies from British rule. Events such as the Stamp and Sugar Acts, the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Intolerable Acts, and the Continental Congress led to expanding tensions and soon to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Colonists sought independence from British government for a multitude of reasons. Tension quickly rose between England and the thirteen colonies due to the unjust taxing without fair representation in Parliament, the colonist’s rights to assemble were taken away by the British, and there were many unreasonable Acts and laws put into place in attempt to have complete control over the colonists as well as intimidate them. For these reasons and the suffering that the colonists endured at the hands of the British government, I feel that the colonists had plenty just causes to separate themselves from England.

There were several reasons colonists wanted to break away from the English. A large reason the colonists wanted to break away from English rule was the amount of high taxes that they had to pay for almost everything, because they essentially had to foot the bill for a war. The colonists also had no say on the laws that were passed by a government that was across an ocean, thus the phrase “No Taxation without Representation.” Paying high taxes and having no say in what laws were passed obviously made the colonists angry with the British government, but another factor was the British would not let the colonists trade with anyone else besides them. This means that all trades going in or out could only be done with Britain. Forcing the colonists to pay whatever the British merchants wanted to set their price at because there was no major competition. All of these things as well as not letting the colonists expand past the Mississippi River, would calumniate into a revolution in which the colonists would form their own government and finally fulfill their wish of breaking away from British rule.

The Revolutionary War started in April of 1775, with the battles at Lexington and Concord. This war would mark the beginnings of the United States as a nation, fighting against the most powerful fighting force at the time, the British Army and Navy. This conflict would go on for a brutal 6 years until the final British surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781. In the end, both sides have lost tens of thousands of men, but how did it all start? The Conflict has its star with the rising tensions between the colonists and the British crown in the aftermath of the French-Indian War in 1763. The financing of the war had caused Britain to be in heavy debt after mobilizing troops to defend colonies. To offset this debt Britain began taxing its colonies, introducing the Townshend and Stamp acts. This act of taxation would anger the 13 American colonies as this was seen as an attack against their rights and to protest this, colonist boycotted and protested, but were met with the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Tensions would rise, and the Boston Tea Party would begin on December 16, 1773. This would lead to the deployment of British troops in Boston and the eventual start of the war. But after all, it may not justified. The Revolutionary war cannot be justified only by a resentment of taxes on imports and a distrust of an Empire that had only finished fighting a war to defend its colony.

“The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” - John Adams, 1818

One of the reasons the Founding Fathers had written the Declaration of Independence was because they wanted America to be free so that Britain could stop taxing the citizens. There were many acts going around such as the Tea Act, the Sugar Act, and the Stamp Act. The colonists had no representation in any of it. Sparknote had stated in their article, "the King interfered with the colonists' right to self-government and for a fair Judicial system." This had ticked the colonists off along with the acts. The King had also "instituted legislation that affected the colonists without their consent." This wasn't fair to the colonists and it would be understandable that they wanted independence.

When the American Revolution first broke out, many countries did not give the colonies more than a passing thought; most assumed that this rebellion would quickly be quelled by the world renowned British army and the colonies would once again be under their control. However, under the leadership of military officers and the guidance of laws and proclamations set forth by the Founding Fathers, America succeeded in their revolution against the control of Britain. Textbooks and teachers have praised America for years, stating that the revolution was a major turning point in world history, setting precedence for future revolutions, such as the French Revolution just a decade after the American Revolution ended. However, in later years, historians have begun to argue that the American Revolution was not the first of its kind, or unique in the way researchers previously stated. The Declaration of Independence, though groundbreaking in its own right, was influenced by documents and declarations in the English Civil War, such as the Petition of Rights and the English Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence, in turn, was a base for the authors and contributors of France’s Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. Furthermore, for all the connections in the chain of antecedents for these documents and the documents themselves, such as philosophical and religious writings, they did not build off of each other in terms of giving rights to more and more people; women and other

The topic of revolution is extremely subjective. What may appear as an insurrection to some might not be as extreme to others. When talking about the American Revolutionary War, however, the answer is clear. While the War certainly brought about change within the United States, it wasn’t necessarily very revolutionary. The most important aspects of the colonies, such as ideas about government, various types of societal equality, slavery and freed blacks, and the rights of women remained for the most part, unaffected.

They wanted freedom of religion. They didn't want a monarchy. They wanted a different system of government that did not involve a king and queen structure. By drafting their own laws they would be able to select delegates for each state, to establish power to conduct foreign affairs, to declare war if necessary, to maintain an Army and a Navy and to coin money. A strong central government is what they wanted to have so that Great Britain couldn’t infiltrate. Establishing their own government would also get rid of the Stamp Act, one of the many acts that required them to pay taxes forced on them by the British to help them with their indebtness. If there were a serious crime committed in the colonies; the person being prosecuted would have to be shipped off to England for trial. This was not fair in the colonists’ eyes because they felt as though there would not be a fair trial because of the lack of their own peers in the jury. Since the British didn’t want to give them a voice, parting ways seems like the best

The British rule in the American colonies has reached a breaking point for most. The people want to have freedom from

-The leaders in England wanted to control their new colonies. They wanted that the colonie to only to trade with England and everything that the colonie would have to go threw England. The colonist didn't want to be so controlled by England they wanted to show that they didn't have to be supervised so much.