Revolutionary War
The haphazard and disorganized British rule of the American colonies in years prior to the outbreak led to the Revolutionary War. The mismanagement of the colonies, the taxation policies that violated the colonist right's, the distractions of foreign wars and politics in England, and mercantilist policies that benefited the English to a much greater degree then the colonists all show the British incompetence in their rule over the colonies. These policies and distractions were some of the causes of the Revolutionary War. The interests of England within the colonies were self-centered. The English were exploiting and trying to govern the colonies by using the mercantilist system. Mercantilism is when the state directs all the economic activities within its borders (Blum 31). England was not attempting to make any changes that would help the colonists. They limited the colonies' commerce with internal trade regulations. The English were exploiting the colonies by demanding that the colonies export and import a majority to and from England. They were importing raw materials from the colonies and making them into exportable goods in England. They would then ship these goods to foreign markets all around the world including the colonie
Debts from this war caused the Prime Minister at the time, Lord Grenville, to enforce mercantilism in an effort to get the colonists to pay their share of the national debt that had doubled since 1754(Blum 95). England passed many Acts that were ill conceived and had long term effects on the relationship between England and the colonies. The most controversial of these were direct taxes. In 1765, Lord Grenville enacted the Stamp Act, which forced the colonists to pay for stamps on printed documents. The Americans had felt the taxes of Lord Grenville were "a deliberate aim to disinherit the colonists by denying them the rights of the English(Blum 96)." By 1766 England backed off in their efforts to tax their colonies. Following a year of opposition from the colonists England revoked the Stamp Act and the first Quartering Act, but they still passed the Declaratory Act. In 1766, the Declaratory Act was passed the same day that the Stamp Act was repealed. The Declaratory Act gave the English government total power to pass laws to govern the colonies. The British claimed that the colonies had always been and should always be subject to the British crown(Blum 99)." The Townshend Acts were then passed in 1767 and placed new taxes on paper, paints, tea, lead and, glass. The new taxes would be used to pay for British officials in the American service. These acts infuriated the colonists because they believed that Parliament had the right to put taxes on the trade of the colonies but could not place taxes directly on the colonists to raise revenue. The spokesperson of the colonies, John Dickinson, wrote in his "Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," on the issue of direct taxes. He distinguished between taxes that were imposed to regulate trade and those that were intended solely to raise revenue. If the tax was used to promote commerce it was justifiable, but if the tax was used only to gain revenue it was not viewed as a legitimate tax. The colonists believed that this new tax w
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Approximate Word count = 1334
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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