...1767, Charles Townshend, made a promise that he would make up the debt of the British so that the English parliament did not have to cut the land tax of the British in order to balance the budget.This promise was known to be the Townshend Acts. Under the Townshend Acts there are five laws that are often mentioned: the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act, and the New York Restraining Act. The Townshend Acts were made to collect revenue from the colonist in order to pay off British debt. The colonist rationale was “No taxation without representation!” because they knew it was just another way for British to gain money for their debts. This caused rebellions, boycotts and plenty of protests. The Townshend Acts just gave the colonist another reason why they should fight for their independence. The Townshend Acts were introduced soon after the British ministry was seized by the unpredictable Charles Townshend, also known as “Champagne Charley”. Although unstable, Townshend was gifted in a way that he could deliver the most brilliant speeches in Parliament, even while drunk. He persuaded Parliament, in 1767 that he would begin to tax the colonists in order to make up the difference of debt. In order pay off the debt, Townshend placed a light import duty on glass, white lead, paper, paint and tea. This was the first out of the five acts in the Townshend Acts, called the Revenue Act of 1767. Townshend had to be very...
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...The Townshend Acts and the Intolerable Acts pushed the colonists to resist British laws and demand independence from England. After the French and Indian War, the colonies were completely broke. In order to pay back their debts, Britain had no other choice but to tax the colonists. However, the colonists had no representation in Parliament, and this angered them. Colonists rebelled and boycotted several items to show England how upset they were. Colonial leaders sent the Olive Branch Petition shortly after the Intolerable Acts were passed attempting to compromise with the King of Britain. He did not even read the letter. Britain passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a tax on all legal documents. The taxes were placed on warrants, pleadings, newspapers,...
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...were many events that lead up to this, such as the Proclamation of 1763 and the writs of assistance, But three very important events were the Townshend Acts, the Boston Tea Party and The Intolerable acts. These three events were central causes of the american revolution. The first of the the was the Townshend acts. After the French and Indian War, England was greatly in debt, and tried to tax the colonies, but the needed new taxes after the Stamp and Sugar acts were repealed....
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...America and their mother country Great Britain. The American Revolution began on April 19, 1775 and ended on September 3, 1783. There are several causes to how the American Revolution came about. Among these causes are The Stamp Act, The Townshend Acts, The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party. The Stamp Act, which was passed in 1765, was Parliament’s first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the thirteen colonies. It was an act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, in the British occupied colonies. The main purpose of these taxes was to help Britain pay for the troops stationed in North America. Not only the British colonies in America, but even the British merchants and manufacturers opposed the act, and the exports to the colonies were threatened by colonial economic problems caused by the taxes The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed in January 1767, by the Britain Parliament. These acts primarily included the Revenue Act of 1767, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act, the Indemnity Act and the New York Restraining Act. The sole purpose of this act was to raise revenue in the American colonies and establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax them. The Townshend Acts met with a huge resistance from the colonies, which prompted the occupation of Boston, by British troops in 1768. The Boston Tea Party was one of the key events which led to the growth of American Revolution. It was an outcome...
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...allied with them. this war broke out over dispute |both France and Britain both suffered financially, so if this had not happened the | | |over the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. |revolutionary war may have had a different outcome. | | |The sugar act was a revenue raising act passed by the parliament of great |This tax on molasses increased the colonists concerns about the intent of the british | |Sugar Act |Britain, to tax molasses hoping that the tax would actually be collected so the |parliament which helped the movement that became the American revolution. | | |kingdoms revenue would grow. | | | |This was a tax that was made specifically for the colonies of British America, |This was met with resistance in the colonies, the colonies sent no representatives to | |Stamp Act |which made it so that printed material be produced on stamped paper carrying a |parliament, and so they had no influence...
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... Gage reported to Lord George Germain, now the Secretary of State of the American Colonies, that a large army was necessary to defeat the Americans and that foreign troops were need to be hired. In April 1776, Thomas was placed on the inactive list. He remained in semi-retirement until 1781. Gage saw little active service and died at the Isle of Portland on April 2, 1787. Thomas Gage was an important person that participated in the war for independence because in response to the outcry raised against the 1765 Stamp Act, he began calling troops and he concentrated them in the coastal cities, particularly New York. Later on, with passage of the Townshend Act, the focus of resistance shifted north to Boston. Gage sent troops to that city and the situation came to a head with the Boston Massacre. Gage requested a Leave of Absence two years later and returned to England. In that period Gage missed the Boston Tea Party and the outcry in response to the Intolerable Acts. Then, on April 18-19, 1775, Gage ordered 700 men to fight at Lexington and Concorde. Thomas Gage was an...
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...during the war. The timing and severity of new policies enacted by the Crown and Parliament, starting with the Sugar Act of 1764 and ending with the Intolerable Acts of 1774, gave almost every colonist a common grievance, expediting the process of colonial unity against British rule (Walton/Rockoff 2010, pp. 93-107). Joseph D. Reid, Jr., a professor in economics, concludes in his paper that “conflict over economic issues best explains the length, intensity of, and participation in protest by the colonists” (Reid 1978, pp. 81-100). English mercantilism explains why Parliament passed certain taxes for the colonies. The goal of mercantilism was to achieve power and wealth for the state by acquiring large amounts of specie, and the mercantilists wanted to use legislation to regulate the economy in a way that helped Britain more than the colonies (Walton/Rockoff 2010, pp. 93-107). The Navigation Acts of 1651 set the stage for the revolution to come almost century later, although the Navigation Acts themselves were not all bad. In fact, the colonists were some of the lightly taxes people in the world (Reid 1978, pp. 81-100). However, the acts that followed infuriated the colonists. After the repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765, Charles Townshend, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, the government department responsible for collecting taxes, passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed duties on tea, glass, paper, and tobacco, but most importantly imposed a customs board, undermining colonists’...
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...British government, which later on lead to the awareness of a possible American Revolution. The question to be addressed in this research paper is which were the major events that over time lead to the Boston Massacre, such as the “Stamp Act of 1765”, “Quartering Act of 1765”, and the “Townshend Act of 1767”. The British Parliament introduced the “Stamp Act of 1765”, this new act had the main purpose to help the British crown pay the expenses of the results from the “French and Indian War”. This new introduction by the British Parliament resulted in a negative reaction from the people of the colonies. They believed that this new Act was just a justification to obtain more money from the colonies and continue to benefit only the Mother Country. Also, they believed that the British crown had no right to tax them due to the fact that they weren’t allowed to choose their representatives (“No Taxation Without Representation”). Riots and protests were very popular during this time period especially aggressive actions toward the tax officials. This actions later lead to the arrive of more British troops to prevent more revolts and maintain a...
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...Doug Kerr June 14, 2013 History 201 Part One: Early Settlers of the American Colonies Early settlers of the American colonies came to the future United States for a variety of reasons. Settlers set off to the new world and left their families, friends, and homes to start new lives. Under those circumstances, why would they still go? Religious oppression. Both the Protestant and Catholic churches were fighting for power in England. When Britain was under catholic powers, the protestant people were persecuted, and fled to the new world in hopes of being able to worship in their own ways freely. Another reason was economic struggle in Europe. Due to economic struggle, people were losing their jobs and became destitute. When the opportunity to come to the New World arose, many of the struggling people saw it as a way to start over and make their fortune in hope to alleviate the suffering in Europe. Beginning as early as thirty thousand years ago, during the Pre-Columbian Era, Americans came from Asia over a land bridge formed at the Bering Strait during the Ice Age. The new immigrants were gatherers and hunters, known as Native Americans, who reached a population perhaps as many as 100 million spread across Central and South America by the time the Europeans “discovered” the New World. Native Americans development of agriculture provoked new innovations and cultures that would influence America forever ("Study Notes - Free AP Notes," n.d.). During the Middle Ages, Europeans...
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...Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution * The Deep Roots of Revolution * Two ideas taken root in the minds of murican colonists (18th century) * REPUBLICANISM : defined a just society as one in which all citizens willingly subordinated their private, selfish interests to the common good * Both stability of society and authority of government depended on virtue of citizenry (its capacity for selflessness, self-sufficiency, and courage, especially its appetite for civic involvement * Opposed to hierarchical and authoritarian institutions such as aristocracy and monarchy * “RADICAL WHIGS”: British political commentators * Feared threat to liberty posed by the arbitrary power of the monarch and his ministers relative to elected representatives in parliament * Mounted attacks on use of patronage and bribes by king’s ministers * Symptoms of wider moral failure in society - “corruption” * Dukes and princes = unknown in colonies * Property ownership and political participations were relatively widespread * Murices unmolested by remote officials in London * Distance weakens authority * Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances * British authority embraced theory - MERCANTILISM * Justified their control over colonies * Mercantilists believed that wealth = power and country’s economic wealth could be measured by amount of gold or silver, a country needed to export more...
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...at all costs. The American colonists were being ruled by a tyrannical government. They were in every way justified in breaking away from Britain and waging war. The American colonists were defending themselves against unjust laws, unfair taxation, and their natural rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Britain needed money to pay its war debts and the King and Parliament were convinced that they had the right to tax the colonies. In 1765 the Parliament and King passed several different taxes so the colonists could help pay for the French and Indian War. These taxes included the Townshend Act, passed in 1767, which required the colonists to pay taxes on imported goods such as tea paper, and lead. Other laws, like the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, required colonists to pay tax on printed materials such as newspapers, legal documents, and magazines. Lastly, the Sugar Act, which raised prices on certain goods such as tea and coffee. As a result, many people in the colonies were angry. They...
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...After a long phase of peace and self- government, the colonists started to obtain acts and taxes from Britain, their mother country, which decreased their freedom. Britain declared that the colonists will start to pay taxes in order to make up the money owed for the war. The colonists boycotted and peacefully protested against these acts, but because matters were only getting worse than being solved, this provoked the American Revolution to occur and violence to erupt. The colonists were justified in seeking independence from Britain. After they weren't even allowed to expand to the land the British obtained after the war, that they helped fight for, they had every right to refuse to pay taxes toward the British. In addition, the other acts made by Britain also signified unfair treatment. The situation commenced when the Parliament, who create laws for Britain, created acts against the colonists. For example, the Quartering Act...
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...The American Revolution occurred due to many factors from 1763 to 1775 that caused American Colonists to develop a stronger sense of autonomy and self-government from the British Empire. After the French and Indian War in 1763, the British Empire had imposed higher and more strict mercantilist imperial controls and taxes on the American Colonists. The American Colonists, however, heavily resisted the imperialistic control from the British and soon saw British troops march in Lexington and Concord in 1775. The American Colonists' resistance to British control was a major factor that caused the heavy tension between American and British political officials before the Revolution. For example, American Colonists forced the abolition of the Stamp...
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...The British government had to pay back the money to the Dutch. The British government was already in debt and by the end of the war the debt was nearly doubled. The money the British government borrowed also had interest so the debt would keep increasing if not paid back immediately. A solution that the British government propose was to tax the colonies and they taxed the colonies through passing a set of policies and acts. These policies are the Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Declaratory Act (1765), The Townshend Act (1767), The Tea Act (1773), and the Intolerable Acts...
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...The Growing Tension between Great Britain and the Colonies HIS/110 2/7/2014 Charles Salter The Growing Tension between Great Britain and the Colonies The onset of the American Revolution was something did not occur overnight. There were many significant events that lead to the American Revolution over several decades. More than a few decades of being taxed, but receiving no representation in the British Parliament began to irritate citizens of the newly founded America. Some of the most prominent events were the French and Indian War, Tea Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act and Coercive Acts. These events eventually sparked the American Revolution when the Colonial people decided they wanted to be free of British ruling (Brinkley, 2007). French and Indian War What motivated the British the most in the French and Indian war was the acquisition of land and generating revenue. The British parliament had depleted a large portion of its funds over several decades of war with other countries. They had knew they had to protect the newly acquired land in present day America because of the wealthy export business potential. The British had more to offer the Indian tribes than their French competitors, which made them a threat to the French. The British had a bad reputation with most Indian tribes because of their unwillingness to cooperate. The Indian tribes viewed the British as arrogant people because they imposed their ways on the Indians rather than accepting...
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