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The American Revolution (1763-1783) was driven by various interrelated causes, including the Great Awakening, which fostered unity among colonists, and the restrictive mercantilist system that stifled economic growth. Colonists opposed taxes imposed to cover war debts, such as the Stamp Act and Tea Act, leading to events like the Boston Tea Party. Furthermore, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted westward expansion, while conflicts over federalism pitted colonial aspirations against British parliamentary authority. Together, these factors ignited the quest for independence.
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The American Revolution 1763-1783
Six Causes • 1.The Great Awakening • America’s first religious revival • A religious movement common to all colonies except Nova Scotia. This created a sense of unity. • Americans today see it as their mission to show the ‘old world’ the way. • George Whitefield and John Edwards were well known preachers from the Great Awakening
Causes Cont’d • 2. Mercantilist System • Stifled economic development. The Navigation Acts limited what Americans could ship. • Americans today worship freedom of the seas and free trade.
Navigation Acts • 1. Goods grown in Asia, Africa or America must be transported to England on by English vessels. • 2. Imported and exported goods to British colonies must be transported on English vessels. • Forbidden items: Tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, indigo
3. All goods shipped to the American colonies must enter through English ports. • 4. Manufacturing of grain forbidden in the colonies. Later items manufactured in the colonies were forbidden. Acts were ended in 1750 by Parliament.
Causes Cont’d • 3. Royal Proclamation of 1763 • Blocked westward expansion and limited economic potential. • Americans today worship the frontier.
Causes Cont’d • 4. Taxes • Imposed on colonists to pay for the Seven Years War. • Stamp Act (1765) • Townshend Duties (1767) • Tea Act (1773) • Boston Tea Party • Americans today resist taxes and drink coffee
Stamp Act (1765) • The Act required that printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London (magazines, newspapers and many legal documents). • The stamp tax had to be in valid British currency, not colonial money.
Townshend Duties (1767) • Duties were placed on colonial imports of lead, glass, paper and tea. • Parliament set up customs service in the colonies to monitor these imports. Charles Townshend
Tea Act (1773) • Expand the British East India Company’s monopoly on tea trade in the colonies. • Although the British tea was better, smuggling of tea still happened in the colonies to avoid taxation. • The Tea Act caused the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
The Boston Tea Party • After officials refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a large group of colonists boarded their ships and threw the tea into the Harbor, effectively destroying the tea. • Parliament stopped Boston’s commerce until the British East India Co. was repaid for the destroyed tea
Causes Cont’d • 5. Federalism • The belief that power should be shared between regional and national governments. Americans wanted it; British Parliament did not want to allow colonial assemblies to be their equal. Britain is a unitary state. • Americans today have a federal system.
6. Quebec Act (1774) • Procedures of governance in Quebec • Extended Quebec’s boundaries into the Ohio Valley • Extended privileges of the Roman Catholic Church and • Forbade an elected Assembly in Quebec • Americans until quite recently were anti-Catholic
Trigger • War of Independence 1775-1783 • British troops marched into Concord, Massachusetts to seize a cache of weapons and arrest radical leaders. • Samuel Adams, John Hancock • Rebels draw the first blood.
