Causes of the Revolutionary War

French and Indian War/Seven Years' War

  • The French and Indian War was the American part of the larger Seven Years' War between Britain and France.
  • Causes of the French and Indian War:
    • Mutual conflict between the French and the British due to both having a presence on the American continent.
    • British were nervous about French encroachment into the Ohio River Valley, and vice versa.
  • The British won, ousting the French from North America.
  • The Louisiana territory was transferred from France to Spain.
  • Britain doubled their land holdings in North America, from the original colonial lines to the Mississippi River.
  • Consequences:
    • American colonists, many of whom fought in the war, began moving west.
    • Moving west led to more conflicts with Native Americans.
    • The British government passed the Proclamation Line of 1763, which forbade colonists from moving further west than the original colonial borders.
      • This frustrated the colonists
    • Increased British debt and the cost of running the colonies led to increased taxation on the colonies.

British Colonial Policies and Taxation

  • British colonial policies, especially taxation without colonial representation in parliament, led to the Revolutionary War.
  • Reasons for colonial angst over new taxes:
    • A long period of solitary neglect had allowed the colonies to act independently of the British crown.
    • Parliament turned a blind eye to colonial flouting of the Navigation Acts due to distance.
    • After this period, the parliament started cracking down, demanding more tax revenue, which colonists resented.
  • Examples of British Policies:
    • Stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts.
    • The Quartering Act: Imperial troops remained in the colonies.
    • The Stamp Act: A tax on all paper items.
  • Colonial objection:
    • Parliament was extracting taxes without colonial consent because colonists had no representation in Parliament.
  • Parliament's response:
    • Virtual representation: Parliament represents all classes of British people, not necessarily all locations.
  • Colonial Response to the Stamp Act:
    • Stamp Act Congress: A formal petition to Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.
    • They asserted their rights as British citizens.
  • British introduced new taxes like the Townshend Acts, leading to a boycott of British goods.
  • The tension reached a boiling point at the Boston Massacre, where British imperial officers fired into a crowd of colonists, killing 11.
  • The colonists considered this a sign of British tyranny.
  • The Boston Tea Party: Colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor.
  • The British response was the Coercive Acts, which shut down Boston Harbor until the lost tea was paid for.
  • Growing support for the patriot movement and independence.

Enlightenment Ideas and American Independence

  • Enlightenment ideas significantly influenced the American independence movement, especially in Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence.
  • Important Enlightenment Ideals:
    • Natural rights
    • Social contract
    • Separation of powers in government
  • Thomas Paine's Common Sense:
    • Argued that the American colonies could no longer be tied to Britain; independence was the only way forward.
    • Combined biblical imagery with enlightenment thought.
    • Became incredibly popular in the colonies.
    • By the spring of 1776, a majority of colonists were convinced independence was the only way forward.
  • Declaration of Independence:
    • Deeply influenced by enlightenment thought.
    • Examples of Natural Rights: All men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
    • Examples of the Social Contract: Governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.