Background
- The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) expanded Britain’s empire but left it deeply in debt.
- To recover costs, Britain imposed new taxes and trade regulations on its American colonies.
- These policies ended the period of “salutary neglect,” increasing imperial control and sparking colonial resentment.
Causes of Colonial Protest
Taxation and Representation
- Acts such as the Stamp Act (1765), Townshend Acts (1767), and Tea Act (1773) imposed direct and indirect taxes on the colonies.
- Colonists rejected “taxation without representation,” insisting that only their elected assemblies could levy taxes.
- This argument drew upon Enlightenment ideas about consent and government accountability.
Definition
Taxation without representation
The colonial protest slogan expressing the belief that Parliament had no right to tax people who lacked elected representatives.
Popular Resistance
- Political groups like the Sons of Liberty organized protests, boycotts, and acts of defiance (including the Boston Tea Party, 1773).
- The First Continental Congress (1774) united the colonies in coordinated resistance against British authority.
- Tensions escalated into open conflict at Lexington and Concord (1775), marking the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
Intellectual and Ideological Foundations
Enlightenment Influence
- The revolution was grounded in Enlightenment thought, especially John Locke’s ideas of natural rights, liberty, and the social contract.
- Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) argued that monarchy was unjust and that independence was both natural and inevitable.
- These ideas gave moral and philosophical legitimacy to rebellion.
