HISTORY 7 PAPER 2 1776: The Road to America’s Independence In 1607, the British first landed on the Atlantic coast of America and soon, established the first colony in Virginia. By 1733 with the Colony of Georgia, the Atlantic coast boasted of 13 British colonies. During this period, a large number of immigrants emigrated to North America, most of whom were British, but there were also many from other European countries and also a sizable population of African slaves. By 1776 America was a free country having won its freedom from the British.
Let us look at the several reasons that set America on the road to Independence. At the time, Britain’s North American colonies due their rapidly developing capitalist economy based on Plantations and Industry led to an impressive social and economic advancement of the region. The Northern and Central colonies were rich in wheat while the South had Tobacco and Cotton plantations. Many North American products rivaled British output in the International market in terms of quality and popularity.
Also after one hundred years of development, the British North American colonies developed increasingly close economic ties, resulting in the initial formation of a unified domestic market. The colony’s economic prosperity was also making the British rulers greedier. They tried to feed off the prosperity by increasing taxes across the colonies. This was met with resistance everywhere. Public protests were soon common decrying the Tax increases From these closer economic ties, also arose a common culture, with English gradually being adopted as the common language.
In the first half of the 18th century, the spread of Enlightenment in the British North American colonies, saw the emergence of a number of outstanding thinkers such as Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison. By the Mid-18th century, due to the rapid economic, industrial and commercial development, of British colonies a National Consciousness started to form. Democratic ideals started to find favor with the colonists. The American Nation was about to be born. On the eve of the Seven Years War, relations between the major powers in Europe were becoming tense.
Soon there were major hostilities across the world between the British and other colonial powers for wresting control of their colonies. Chief among them were several Anglo-French conflicts. Britain from the 16th century to the 670s had defeated Spain and the Netherlands. Its only strong opponent was France and the two strong battle that followed were inevitable. May 1754 , the 22 years old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington led a team of colonial troops to the disputed area in an attempt to force the French to retreat. Frenchman defeated in Nise Sisti Fort Washington.
Over the next two years , the situation is not conducive to getting the British , they met with defeat . 1756 , as British Prime Minister William Pitt sent more energetic and young officers and troops deployed in North America. Since then again and again. Britain’s powerful naw cut off the French troops and ammunition supply lines; the French colonial army was in a desperate situation. 1759 , James General Wolfe led the British to attack the French army near Quebec City . After nearly three months of fghting, Wolfe ‘s army defeated the French, captured Quebec.
About a year later , Montreal surrendered to the British . 1763 , the peace treaty was signed in Paris . According peace treaty , the United Kingdom took Canada from France in addition to outside of New Orleans all the territories east of the Mississippi . English would also be an ally of France, Spain, from the hands to get Florida. Result , the British controlled from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River between all of the North America. Seven Years’ War was a turning point in American history. It is caused by an important factor in the American Revolutionary War.
English for winning the war spent a lot of money, the British subjects were faced with onerous taxes, putting the state into debt. After the war, Britain started seeking to strengthen the expansion of the American control of the territory. In this case, the new settlers to seize and defend the territorial share some of the expenses seem logical. 760 King George Ill ascended the throne of the British Parliament passed legislation controlling commanded colonial trade, making it conducive to the home country, while forcing the British colonial government to burden an increasing share of expenditure.
The British government in order to increase the financial power increased colonial taxes, forced outrageous terms on the colonial press and meted out brutal exploitation. In 1765, the British had come up with new tricks: stamp duty. They required that all documents, contracts, licenses, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, documents, wills, must affix tax stamps to take effect negotiable. This provoked great anger among the colonial people therefore, “Sons of Liberty”, “Communications Commission” and other secret anti-British organizations started forming.
Anti-British events such as get rid of the publicans, burning stamps, armed resistance and so on became common. All this caused a panic in the British government; they immediately sent troops to suppress. On March 5, 1770, British troops in Boston to shoot unarmed people, killing five people on the spot and injuring six people, creating a shock in North America, “Boston Massacre. ” Anti-British anger urned in the hearts of the colonial people, a war for independence and freedom in the North American continent was triggered.
British government to the North American colonial constantly increasing taxes and implement high-handed policy on colonies outrageous and cruel exploitation press, Britain wants America to do it forever raw materials and commodity markets, trying to suppress the colonial economy, and from the colonial plunder more wealth. With England deepening colonial oppression, some insight is also beginning to realize: in order to get a real colony development, we must get rid of the British rule. And discontent British colonists began exploits and shackles, the two sides have become increasingly acute, eventually leading to the outbreak of war.
Personally I think that the colonial development, and the eventual march on the road to independence is an inevitable trend of social development. Seven Years’ War was the fuse for American independence, but also an opportunity. The war lasted seven years and resulted in a heavily indebted I-JK, which turned to its American Colonies for sustenance and increasing existing taxes . Despite the colony ‘s economic development, they could ot afford the heavy British taxes. Therefore, they had to find ways to solve this problem; the solution was the idea of Independence.
Knowledgeable people and organizations acted up. Of course, British were also aware of the seriousness of the problem and immediately sent troops to suppress, but no force can stop the herald of positive changes, and the shock in North America of the ” Boston Massacre. ” was a turning point. At this point, all the colonized people were waking up to a firm determination of independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence and Lexington gunfire opened the prelude to war. After eight years of intense war between the Colonies and its Rulers, the United States had also become an independent country.
In the meantime, there was a book on the war that also played a decisive role. In 1774, People’s struggle against the British in North America came surging, however, the concept of Monarchy was still ingrained, even with Washington, Franklin, Adams. In such a situation, Paine published a pamphlet – the radical and far-reaching “common sense”, openly questioning the direction of American Revolution, and asking to strive to establish a Republic after the revolution. “Common ense” one, immediately swept the North American continent, changing everyone and became the textbook of the American Revolution.
American War of Independence was the world’s first-ever large-scale colonial war for national independence, and its victory against the British Empire’s colonial system opened up a gap and soon triggered other colonial wars for national liberation and established a paradigm. War of Independence was another bourgeois revolution, which overthrew the British colonial rule, creating the United States of America, while rooting out the remnants of the feudal colonial inheritance – continued generation of abor law and heir limited tax system also largely abolished indentured servants .
Thus liberating the productive forces, the development of capitalism in the United States opened up a broad road. As Lenin put it: “The history of modern, civilised America opened with one of those great, really liberating, really revolutionary wars,” REFERENCES: http://blog. sina. com. cn/s/blog_8803a1c501 OOu5gh. html http://wuxizazhi. cnki. net/Search/JSJB901. 029. html httpwwww. jconltne. crucontents/Channel_6942/2012/0419/809670/ content_809670. htm http://www. zhihu. com/question/19913977
