The Background of the American Revolution
What issues, conditions, and circumstances may have led to an eventual American independence movement in the 1770s? I will be answering this question on this essay. I believe that in the 1770s several factors interacted to cause conflicts between Great Britain and its colonies in North America. Among them were: mercantilism, colonial distance from England, the rights of Englishmen, Enlightenment philosophy and, The French and Indian (Seven Years’) War. However, I will be explaining how these affected the 1770s.
Mercantilism was a popular economic theory among European leaders in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. This theory maintained that the world contained only a limited amount of wealth and that it was the duty, therefore, of monarchs to acquire as much wealth as possible for their country. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal, according to mercantilism, was to establish colonies. Colonies would provide the mother country with raw materials and, in turn, purchase manufactured goods from the mother country. The mercantilist theory was strengthened in 1776 with the publication of Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations.
Colonial distance from Great Britain contributed to the development of a separate identity among the colonists living along the eastern coast of North America. Separated from their mother country by a vast ocean, colonists had to adapt their traditional farming techniques, learn to live alongside Native Americans, and endure the loneliness of living in a new environment. Because of these challenges a sense of community developed among them. As the decades passed, more and more British colonists began to think of themselves as Americans who shared common experiences.
Although the American colonists differed from their fellow countrymen and women in Europe, they maintained that crossing the Atlantic had not denied them their traditional “rights of Englishmen”. Among these rights were the right to trial by jury, that life, liberty, and property could not be taken away without due process of laws, the right to a writ of habeas corpus and a jury trial if arrested, the necessity of a court-issued search warrant specifically stating the items sought, and no taxation without the consent of Parliament.
The English colonists had already ensured these rights in the colonial governments they established in America. For example, by the seventeenth century representative government was present in colonial assemblies, among them the Virginia House of Burgesses. The New England town meeting reflected the exercise of direct democracy in the New England colonies. The first successful constitution of modern times, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, implied that government exists by the consent of the governed.
The thought behind the “rights of Englishmen” and colonial governments was based on the writings of Enlightenment philosophers, notably England’s John Locke. Locke’s writings centered around the social contract, the idea that people chose to give up some of their rights to government so that governments could protect these rights for all their citizens. The only privileges that citizens should not be required to surrender were the “unalienable” rights of life, liberty, and property. (When he wrote the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson changed these words to read “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”). Although the British government felt that it was protecting these rights, the colonists disagreed, especially after the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) in North America.
The French and Indian War was the American phase of the Seven Years’ War. When the war ended in 1763 with a British victory, the British were left with huge debts and expected its American colonies to help with the costs. Now they strengthened the enforcement of the Navigation Acts to gather funds. The colonists claimed that they were being forced to pay these taxes without their own representative in the British Parliament, which they felt was against the rights of Englishmen. Parliament also passed the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade colonists to settle the fertile lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. A reason for this restriction was to prevent the British from incurring more debts from providing soldiers to protect the colonists from the Indians and the remaining French citizens living west of the Appalachians.
By 1763 Britain’s American colonists were increasingly upset by new taxes passed without their consent, which they claimed violated the “rights of Englishmen”. The Navigation Acts, once largely ignored, were now being enforced, which meant the assessment of more taxes from the colonies. The colonists had gradually been developing their own identity and were proud of their establishment of self-government through their colonial assemblies. As Parliament continued to place more restrictions on its colonists, the colonists began training their militia for the possible outbreak of war.
Here you have it, mercantilism, colonial distance from England, the rights of Englishmen, Enlightenment philosophy and, The French and Indian (Seven Years’) War led to the American revolution. War can always be something that can lead to big events for better or for worse. America came through a lot, but it was worth it in the end. Therefore, that concludes my essay on what the issues, conditions, and circumstances that may have led to eventual American independence movement in the 1770s.