The Causes of the American Revolution

The Stamp Act of 1765

The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first imposed tax directly on American colonists by the British government. This act was meant to enforce a tax on all paper material in the colonies. The seven years’ war caused the British government a great debit, therefore they looked forward to its North American colonies as a revenue source. Arguing that only their representative assemblies could tax the colonist, but the colonists insisted that the act was unlawful, and they resorted to gang violence to threaten stamp collectors into resigning. The issues of taxation and representation caused by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British ten years later.

The Seven Years' War

The seven years’ war ended the long opposition between France and Britain for control of North America. Success in the war, however, had burdened the British Empire with a great debt. But since the war profited the American colonists and it was costly, and Britain needed to raise money to help them run the government, so they decided to charge taxes on the American Colonist who in their judgment should help pay for the British troops stationed in America to protect them. The British government made a decision that those colonists should bear part of the war’s cost. Through a structure of restrictions of duties on imports and exports, Britain had long organized the colonial trade. Therefore the government started to constrict its reins on the colonies beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764, which forced new duties on sugar and other goods. Shortly after that, George Grenville suggested the Stamp Act; the act passed in Parliament without debate in 1765 which required the legal documents and other printed resources be printed on superior paper from England that had a marked income stamp on it. The Stamp Act forced a direct tax on the colonist without imposing a duty on trade goods. It needed to bear a tax stamp which was provided by a commissioned distributors who was mandated to collect the tax in interchange for the stamp. Part of the income from the Stamp Act would be used to maintain several regiments of British soldiers in North America to keep the peace between Innate Americans and the colonists. Moreover, violators of the Stamp Act could be tried and convicted without juries in the courts.

The Stamp Act Congress and the Declaratory Act

Soon after the American Revolution initiated, the American colonists created a new government which formed a commission to voice to People why the colonies wanted freedom. Thomas Jefferson was selected to be the head of this commission of twenty-seven representatives from nine of the provinces who be present at the Stamp Act Congress (Morgan & Morgan, 1953). The Stamp Act Congress and the causing Declaration of Rights and Complaints is the first time the colonist took action in contradiction of what they considered biased act of the British government. As a message to the unhelpful colonist, the British Parliament passed the Declaratory Act on the same day they canceled the Stamp Act. This act acknowledged that the British Parliament had power over the American colonies and that the colonist would have to observe their laws and pay taxes they imposed.

Cited Work

(Burgan, 2005) (Morgan & Morgan, 1953)