Roots of the Rumble

Roots of the Rumble

How is it that the American colonists went from fighting for the British Empire against the French in the Seven Years’ War to declaring independence from the British less than fifteen years later? How does a society go from laying down life and limb to secure the British Empire’s position as the world’s leading trade power to just over a decade later laying down life and limb to break any control that the Empire exerted over the American society? As is true with any historical event, the answer to the question of cause is never simplistic, but we can sift through the events to find a few causes that prompted the largest number of people to the most action—the Enlightenment, taxes, and Parliament’s stuffy governmental policies towards the colonists.

The British may have won the Seven Years’ War, but it found itself in tremendous debt from the costs of waging war against France in Europe, India, and North America. The result of the war was that the British Empire was a world superpower and it sought to unite its colonies, especially the American colonies, in a tighter sense of community, even if separated by oceans. Prior to the war, England had a policy of benign neglect towards the American colonies. Though the colonies were culturally British—dressed in British styles, considered themselves subjects of the English king, and thought themselves as an extension of British society—Parliament exhibited little direct supervision over the colonies. But after the Seven Years’ War the British government sought to more closely integrate the colonies into the empire’s economy by imposing taxes and regulations. The overarching goals were to tap the resources of the colonies to help pay down the debt accrued during the war and mercantilist notions that closer oversight of the colonies’ economies would strengthen the empire’s economy.

Parliament imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time and the colonial governments balked at this. Between 1763 and the eve of the revolution, Parliament imposed the Proclamation of 1763 which limited westward expansion; the Sugar Act of 1764; the Currency Act of 1764; the Stamp Act of 1765 which stirred up a great deal of protest as it was a tax on all printed documents; the Declaratory Act “asserting Parliament’s authority over the colonies” (Brinkley 114); the Mutiny or Quartering Act of 1765; and, in 1767, the Townshend Duties were imposed on lead, paint, paper, and tea. The long line of taxes imposed and proclamations enacted affected a great number of colonists who had influence and voice in their communities—tavern owners, merchants, lawyers, and printers. Besides their pocketbooks being hit, the colonists were angry that self-rule was being taken away from them. They made bids for adherence to Enlightenment ideas about the social contract with government. Drawing from the works of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, the colonists argued that “individuals granted political rights to their ruler but retained personal rights to life, liberty, and property” (Bentley 809) and thus felt they should only be taxed by their own consent, through local representation. Parliament thought this ludicrous since there was no allowance for such in British law and insisted on its right to rule the colonies despite the stretch of ocean between England and North America.

Though Parliament responded to various rebellions and boycotts by repealing some acts, it insisted on asserting the sovereignty of Parliament over the colonies. By installing British military courts to try cases of bribery and tax evasion and by shipping the men accused of sinking the H.M.S. Gaspee back to England for trial, Parliament expressed its disregard for the colonial governments and sovereignty. These responses increasingly alienated the colonists. Radical groups vied for rebellion and outright succession. When a new Tea Act drove home the point that Parliament was sweeping aside their protests and desire for “no taxation without representation”, a great number of colonists participated in a tea boycott and the radical Sons of Liberty group threw tea into the Boston harbor at the so-called “Boston Tea Party” of 1773. Parliament’s response was to pass the Coercive or Intolerable Acts which heightened the colonists’ paranoia that their religious freedoms would soon be imposed upon by direct meddling from Parliament just like their economy was being meddled with.

The colonists reacted by coming together to form the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774. The Congress worked on compiling a list of grievances and points to correspond with Parliament about and, notably, approved preparation for a defensive war if economic warfare with England grew more volatile. The British government had already sent out notice to suppress colonial dissent which heightened the tension of the situation to that of two parties dancing around a powder keg with a lit match. Though some forces in Parliament were working to diffuse the situation a bit, word of their conciliations reached North America too late as British General Thomas Gage was told to arrest “rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock” (Brinkley 123) and arrange to seize colonial military stores in Concord. On April 18, 1775, the first shots of the revolution were fired—the powder keg ignited.

By July 4, 1776, all thirteen American colonies were determined to have independence from British rule if they were not afforded the right to self-rule and certain individual rights. England’s attempt to exert direct rule over the colonists after years of benign neglect and the ideas of the Enlightenment and individualism travelling throughout the colonies led to a clash that eventually resulted in the establishment of the United States of America.

Works Cited

Bentley, Jerry H. and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the

Past. 2nd Edition. Vol. II: From 1500 to the Present. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey, Volume I: To 1877. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.