Independence was what the American Revolution was all about.
Many Navigation Acts had been passed starting in 1650 but none were enforced until Britain noticed they could cash in on the now prospering economic system of the colonies. Mercantilism played this role. The idea of mercantilism was to achieve economic self-sufficiency by exporting more than importing. England viewed the colonies as an easy way to do just that.
For example, the colonies were forbidden to produce for export woolen cloth and beaver hats, because the colonies were supposed to "compliment and not compete with British industry." Later in 1660 Charles II approved a stronger version of the previous Navigation Act. This new act required colonists to sell certain goods only to England, such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton so a British middleman could get a cut of the profit. This created a huge disadvantage because colonial merchantmen now had to go hundreds of miles out of their way just to sell to another country. This forbade the colonists to import or export to other countries; thus colonists lost profit. Everyday hard cash was being drained from the colonists and into the pockets of greedy
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American revolution
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american revolution
american revolution. The American Revolution was largely economic and political in nature. The political reasons were that England ... (5772
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american revolution. ... ReevesAP US HistoryThe American Revolution represented a radical alteration in American political ideas and institutions. ... (5632
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american revolution. ... Occasionally, they also change events and lives beyond the borders of where they are fought. The American Revolution was one of these. ... (8613
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s America would have not have developed the taste of independence. Independence was what the American Revolution was all about.
Early America's economic situation with Britain was perhaps the leading cause of the revolution. The colonists generally prospered financially up to about the year 1660. Quality of life declines when you have less money. Colonists would have stayed on good terms with the British as long as they had money in their pockets and a healthy lifestyle.
Technically the colonies were part of the British Empire but they were not directly represented in Parliament. Most early American colonies had set up systems of proprietary self-government. In the 1760s England past a series of acts to tax goods and restrict colonists' rights. This angered most colonists who cried out, "no taxation without representation." However, England"tms excuse for this was that every member of Parliament represented all British subjects including those in the colonies. Later Parliament became more restrictive in 1774 by passing the Coercive Acts to punish the colony of Massachusetts. Among other things it shut down individual town governments and the colonial legislature.
This powerful difference between the views of the mother country and the views of the colonists, who in affect had no real political representation, further contributed to the unrest and angst stirring in colonial blood. Colonists were being suffocated by a
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