Causes of the American Revolution
In 1775, the American Colonies rebelled against British authority. The rebellion resulted from disagreements over the proper relationship between Great Britain and its colonies. As the "mother country," Britain expected obedience from its "children," the colonies. The colonists, on the other hand, believed that they had certain rights which Britain should respect. Each side refused to yield, which led to a military showdown and eventual independence for the colonies.
Relations between the colonies and the mother country steadily worsened from 1763 to 1775. During that time, Parliament passed a number of laws to increase Great Britain's income from the colonies. These included the Sugar Act, a tax on molasses; the Stamp Act, which required the colonists to pay for tax stamps that had been placed on newspapers, playing cards, diplomas, and various legal documents; and the Townshend Acts, a group of laws that placed duties on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the colonies and set up a customs agency in Boston to collect them efficiently.
The colonists reacted to these measures angrily. They lived far from Britain and had grown increasingly self-reliant. Many Americans believed that the new British policies threatened their freedom. In late 1774, Britain's King George III declared, "The die is now cast, the colonies must either submit or triumph." A few months later, the Revolutionary War broke out.
Excerpt adapted from the
"Revolutionary War in America" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999