These events played a significant part in the disagreements which materialised in the late 1760s between the American Colonists and the British Government as they gave the Colonists the belief that they needed to question the authority of the British Government to impose acts on them rather then letting rule by their own laws. By 1766 the British Government had a national debt of £130 million that they attributed to the campaigns in America. This forced a change in British policy towards the Colonies in the early 1760s, whereby they attempted to strengthen trade legislation while simultaneously raising revenue to pay for maintaining the Colonies, and this effectively began the long cycle of disagreements between the British Government and the Colonists over various issues.
The issues of disagreement with British policy towards the colonies began when the British introduced the Currency Act, which prohibited issuing paper money. The Colonists disagreed with this on the basis that it threatened commercial activity at a time when recessions were a frequent occurrence. The Stamp Act of 1765, however, was to prove a greater bone of contention as it imposed duties on newspapers, documents and other items, with the sole purpose of raising revenue to finance American defence. The Colonists were angered with this act as agreeing to it would mean relinquishing their claim to the exclusive right to impose taxes within in their own area. Opposition to it became progressively violent as the Colonists sought to voice their concern over any form of British taxation being levied on them, as it would challenge the principles of government which they held and indeed their sole right to control expenditure and taxation.
By 1767, the American Colonists were becoming increasingly angered over British claims that they could impose any law that they wanted. In 1767 the Townsend Acts were passed, they suspended the New York legislature until it agreed to implement the Quartering Act but perhaps more significantly for the Colonists they imposed duties on such goods as tea, glass, paper and lead. Although Colonial reaction was slow to come about, the Circular letter which stated that the rights of American Colonists were being infringed as they were expected to pay taxation without having any representation in British parliament, began to stir up colonial resentment and culminated in occasional spurts of violence when all but the tax on tea were repealed as a symbolic gesture. By 1769, certain Colonists, but particularly those from South Carolina, were alarmed at what they perceived to be a British plan to take away their liberty and establish a somewhat authoritarian way of ruling them. These incidents, along with the controversy over whether or not a Bishop would be appointed for the Colonies, heightened the Colonists feelings of anger towards the British Government and the direction that their policy towards America was taking.
The occurrence of the Boston Tea Party on 16 December 1773 was perhaps the most significant event in the period of disagreements between the British Government and American Colonists from 1763 to 1774. It effectively came about when Lord North decided to allow the East India Tea Company to sell tea in America through agents, rather than the traditional public auction system. For financial and political reasons, the Colonists opposed this new development and the crisis exploded at the port of Boston when 90,000 pounds of tea were thrown into the harbour. Whether justified or not, the Colonists felt the British Government were taking away their right to govern themselves.
A British response to this act of sabotage was not long in coming as Lord North quickly introduced the four Coercive Acts. These were designed to strengthen the British in Massachusetts and indeed remind the Colonists that their survival depended on the British. The first of the Coercive Acts closed the Boston port until compensation was paid to the East India Tea Company, while another Coercive Act allowed for trials of revenue officials for capital offences to occur outside the province of Massachusetts should the Governor wish. The colonists were determined to resist these acts and termed them the ‘Intolerable Acts’. Through the Coercive Acts, the Colonists realised that the British policy of suppressing the rights and liberty of those in Massachusetts could easily be extended to other colonies. The Coercive Acts then became another issue of disagreement between the American Colonists and the British Government as the British felt they were simply strengthening their authority while the Colonists felt the British were undermining their system of government and, by implication, their way of life.
A response to the ‘Coercive Acts’ was swift as the First Continental Congress met in September and October of 1774. While its purpose was to organise protest against the new British policy towards the Colonists, it effectively became an outlet in which to persuade the British Government to redress American grievances through peaceful means. The congress issued a Declaration of Colonial Rights and Grievances and in it claimed that the right to impose taxation was exclusively that of the Colonies. The British Government continued to disagree with the Colonists however, and a drift towards war now seemed inevitable.
Towards the end of 1774, the Colonists began resisting the ‘Intolerable Acts’ even more vigorously, while simultaneously collecting arms and training for action. It was at this point that the main issues of disagreement between the British Government and the American Colonists were at their most potent. While it can be argues that perhaps isolated instances of disagreement between the two factions may not have led to a war, the fact that each disagreement came one after the other in a relatively short period of only eleven years meant that tensions were heightened and with each new disagreement the sense of intense dislike and suspicion grew. The first shots of the American Revolution may have been heard in Lexington on the 19th of April 1775, but the intense disharmony and dislike the American Colonists felt towards the British Government began much earlier that that. In the eleven years from 1763 to 1774, the seeds of American discontent were firmly sown as disagreement after disagreement eroded the previously healthy relationship between the American Colonists and the British Government.
History Essay
The American Revolution
Orla Quirke
1 Arts
Tutorial Group
Bonwick, Colin, The American Revolution (New York, 1991) P. 57
Bonwick, Colin, The American Revolution (New York, 1991) P. 72
Bonwick, Colin, The American Revolution (New York, 1991) P. 75
‘Causes of the Revolutionary War’ ,
Bonwick, Colin, The American Revolution (New York, 1991) P. 78
Bailyn, Bernard, Origins of American Policies (New York, 1968) P.68-69
Bonwick, Colin, The American Revolution (New York, 1991) P. 82
