Also, Why did this war become a 'world war' by 1778, and In what sense was the american revolution a working-out of the principal ideas of the eighteenth century enlightenment? Any input is helpful, thank you!
History - 7 Answers
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1 :
they were being taxed heavily by the english and they were angry about it, the main taxes were the stamp act, the tea tax, and the townshend act. hope this helps, i was just doing this in my Social Studies class.
2 :
Taxation without representation.
3 :
the high taxes of colonists from the king
4 :
The best answer to your question is the Declaration of Independence. The beginning of the Declaration is our intention to declare independence. We explain next why we are going to do that. You should begin reading where it begins, "Usurpations of the King of Great Britain." By 1778, France had come over to our side, thus making it a "world" war. To know how the revolution was a working-out of the 18th-cent. enlightenment, go back to the beginning: "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary..."
5 :
Actually, the colonists were taxed at a much lower rate than British subjects in Britain were, but they resented paying taxes at all. They also resented British attempts to control all the maritime trade of the colonies with other countries and British colonies; this led to rampant smuggling and a cozy relationship with pirates. They also resented the peace terms that settled the 7 Year's War (here known as the French and Indian War) which kept the Americans to the east of the Appalachians. Oh, how they wanted the Ohio valley and all those Indian lands in the South! How dreadful that the British were stopping them from stealing all this land! As for Enlightenment principles, the principle that the people are the soverign power was the big one. Our current fearless leader has forgotten this and thinks that he is the soverign power.
6 :
The British Empire was at war with France. To generate the cash needed to win the war, the Empire raised taxes in all its colonies. Also, the American colonies wanted to expand west but the Empire forbade this as it had signed accords with the natives, ensuring their safety. When the civil war broke out (for this is what it was), the French established a naval blockade to hinder the British Empire landing more troops in the American colonies and supplying the armies they already had there. The war spread from Africa to the Carribean to the Americas and was the real first World War.
7 :
Good questions... The revolt was stated as pushing back against the English Crown for taxation without presentation. Many feel this is a good slogan, but doesn't hold up under close scrutiny. Others feel the real reason was that the predominant Americans did not feel they were getting the respect they merited/desired from the British aristocracy. Still others feel those most able to benefit from and independent America were the people most likely to sign. Draw your own conclusions - but many of those same people lost all they had by putting their name on the Delaration of Independence... It became a "World War" because the French and English were at odds and it made sense for France to destabilize the English by aiding the Americans/spreading out England's resources as a distraction to lessen their impact in Europe, just as Lincoln hoped to destabilize the South (during the Civil War) by signing the Emancipation Proclamation. With most of the new thinkers printing their thoughts and sharing their ideas from France and the U.S., and with France deposing its rulers on the heels of the American Revolution, it would make sense that those countries would become the laboratories of a sort for working through these new and dynamic thoughts shared by people such as Voltaire.
