American and French Revolution and Influences on Australia
Today
American Revolution
It all started in the 18th century when the convicts and people from their own will moved from
Britain to America because many people were homeless and poor; they hated the lifestyle and also
wanted freedom, so the convicts and people who wanted to leave fled to America to start a new life.
Britain went to war against France and very quickly lost large amounts of money as they were
spending their funds on weapons etc. so for that reason King George the Third taxed only the
Americas because there was point in taxing Britain if they had no money. He needed the money to
regain his country’s wealth. This law meant all colonists had to pay a tax to Great Britain on all of the
printed materials that they used. Colonist were outraged, and responded by avoiding buying all
British goods. The Americas stood up for themselves and put up a good fight so one year later in
1776 the stamp act was cancelled.
Taxation and other issues continued to build tension between Britain and the colonies. The tension
showed between the colonists and the British soldiers who were situated in Boston. The towns’
people hated the soldiers and treated them poorly, often harassing them verbally and physically. On
the night of March 5th, 1770 it all got worst and the tension was taken to a whole new level. Private
Hough White was on guard in front of the Customs House on King Street in Boston. A crowd of
people had gathered and began distressing the solider. His calls for help brought 9 soldiers led by
Captain Thomas Preston. The crowd continued to harass the soldiers with insults, and were throwing
snowballs at them. In confusion, someone yelled, “Fire!” and soldiers began shooting. Three towns
people were killed and eight more were wounded, two of which died later. No one knew who gave
the order to fire. This is known as the Boston Massacre.
When the British cancelled the Townsend Act they removed all taxes and responsibility on goods,
except for tea. This became the focal point of the colonist’s anger.
The British Company had controlled all the tea trading between India and the British colonies. As a
result of the tea tax, the colonies refused to buy the British tea. Instead, the smuggled tea in from
Holland. This left British Company with warehouses full of unsold tea. The company was in danger of
going out of business. The British government was determined to stop their Company from going
out of business, so they were going to force the colonists to buy their tea. In May 1773, the tea act
was passed by the British government and the prime minister. The tea act allowed the British
company to sell tea directly to the colonists. This allowed the company to sell their tea cheaper than
the colonial merchants who were smuggled tea from Holland. The colonies once again demanded
that that the British government remove all taxes on tea. In addition, the dock workers began
refusing to unload the tea from ships.
Rebecca Hardy
9.K
Report
On December 16th, 1773, a group of men went to Boston Harbour. They boarded three British ships
and dumped forty-five tons of tea into the Boston harbor, this event is known as ‘The Boston Tea
Party’.
French Revolution
The causes of the French revolution were: difference’s in society, Enlightenment ideas, poor
leadership, financial crisis, hunger and cold and France heard that the Americas ruled against their
King so the French thought they could do the same. King Louis was very young which made it
difficult to deal with all the problems that were taking place at the time.
The French revolution affected a lot of Europeans because they thought they weren’t going to have
to pay a larger tax and so conflicts began throughout the regions. The French revolution affects
Australia today because if Australia wasn’t found six days earlier because of the revolutions we could
be speaking French. It can still affect Australia because still to this day there is a lot of unfairness in
society. Australia is a Democratic country but most likely could have been a monarchy.
The American Revolution influenced Britain to explore because America wanted to be free from the
British Monarchy. Australia was a place to send convicts, if the French exploration had arrived in
Botany Bay six days earlier we would most likely be a part of the British Empire because the
revolution could still happening. British sent their convicts to America before they discovered
Australia, so when Captain Cook found N.S.W all the convicts were sent to Australia.
If the French had came six days earlier a lot would be different. We would be speaking a completely
different language; we would have a totally different look on life and too have an enormously
different religious and ethnic belief.
Rebecca Hardy
9.K
Report