American History: American Revolution, Lesson One - Causes
The American Revolution is a true picture of cause and effect. It began with the
French and Indian War and one event led to another until shots were fired at Lexington
and Concord, beginning the Revolutionary War.
There were many political factors involved. This included the question of whether
the Parliament in Great Britain had the right to impose taxes on the colonists in
America. The economic factors included the need for taxes as a result of the French and
Indian War. Also, the colonists used economic power to boycott British goods and force
British merchants to urge Parliament and King George III to repeal the Stamp Act. (King
George III ruled Great Britain before, during, and after the American Revolution.)
The French and Indian War was a battle of two-against-two. France and the
Native Americans fought England and the colonists over lands in the Ohio River Valley.
The British and colonists won the war and gained control of these lands but had a large
debt as a result.
The British Parliament and King George III decided that this debt should be paid
by the American colonists, whose lands the British had been defending. This had never
been done before: before the French and Indian War, the British government ignored
what was happening in the colonies and let them govern and tax themselves. After the
French and Indian War, the British Parliament began to pass a series of laws that
changed the relationship between the colonial assemblies and the Parliament. Colonists
believed it was the right of their colonial assemblies to impose taxes, not the right of
the King or of Parliament. They resisted this changed policy through protests and
boycotts of British goods.
One of the British taxes, the Stamp Act, placed a tax on all papers, such as
legal documents and newspapers. The colonists protested with the cry, “No taxation
without representation”. Colonists did not have a representative in Parliament and
therefore had no voice in Parliament. They wanted to keep the right of their own
colonial assemblies to create taxes.
Colonists organized a Stamp Act Congress, which sent a petition to the King, and
declared a boycott on British goods that led to the repeal of the Stamp Act. They also
organized the Sons and Daughters of Liberty in order to protest British taxes. One
member, Patrick Henry from Virginia, wrote a famously strong protest to the Stamp Act
that ended with the words “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Another member, John
Adams from Massachusetts, helped write the Declaration of Independence.
The Tea Act was not a tax. This act gave the British East India Company
exclusive rights, called a monopoly, to sell tea in the colonies, because the East India
Tea Company had financial problems and Parliament wanted to help the company avoid
bankruptcy. Colonists were already boycotting tea because of a tax imposed under a
law called Townshend Act. The Sons of Liberty feared that the monopoly would make
cheap tea too tempting for colonists, and that they would end the boycott. They took
American History: American Revolution, Lesson One - Causes
drastic action in Boston, Massachusetts, boarding a British ship and throwing the tea
overboard. That event would become known as the Boston Tea Party.
As punishment for the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.
The British named these acts the Coercive Acts because they were designed to coerce,
or force, the colonists to pay for the dumped tea. The law also recognized the right of
the Parliament to make tax laws for the colonies. The colonists renamed them the
Intolerable Acts because they were so harsh. The Intolerable Acts closed the Boston
Harbor and took away the right of the colony of Massachusetts to govern itself.
Colonists formed Committees of Correspondence to communicate their
situations to each other. The letters they wrote helped to keep all colonists informed
about British actions in Massachusetts and other colonies. Then they sent delegates to
a Continental Congress in order to address the problem of the Intolerable Acts.
The First Continental Congress came up with two big ideas. They started a
boycott on all trade with Great Britain and sent a petition to the King. The Continental
Congress also advised American colonists to arm themselves. That decision led to the
battle of Lexington and Concord and the start of the Revolutionary War.
There is so much to know – and so much more to be learned! Use the chart below to
keep track of big ideas and discover even more facts about the American Revolution:
KEY EVENTS
KEY PEOPLE
KEY TERMS
*The French and Indian War
*The Stamp Act
*The Tea Act
*The Boston Tea Party
*The Intolerable Acts
(remember the British
name!)
*Committees of
Correspondence
*The First Continental
Congress
*The Battle of Lexington and
Concord
*King George III
*The British Parliament
*Sons and Daughters of
Liberty
-Patrick Henry
-John Adams
*Colonial Assemblies
*Petition
*Boycott
*Monopoly
*Militia
* to “arm”