Scarica The American War of Independence: Causes, Conflict, and Consequences e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE What was the situation in Britain when George III came to the throne? George III came to the throne in 1760, Britain was in control of the seas and was enjoying a period of domestic stability and economic expansion. But the English also imposed on the colonists the obligation to contribute to the expenses of the empire. These were indirect taxes on goods that had a not negligible importance for the Americans: the customs taxes received by the British government were not sufficient to pay the expenses of the military corps and officials stationed in America. There is already an air of tension between the motherland and the colonies What caused the conflict between the American colonies and Britain? In 1765 the English government wanted to extend a stamp duty to the colonies, already in force in the mother country, for which any use of paper, in newspapers, commercial documents, legal documents, etc. by affixing a stamp (this document went down in history under the name of "Stamp Act"). The British justified the introduction of the tax, arguing that the same was in force in the motherland. Since the consent of taxpayers in the determination of taxes was one of the traditional cornerstones of English freedom since the days of the Magna Carta, the colonists refused to comply with the law and posed the alternative of either being able to send their representatives to Parliament, or exempt from any tax not approved by their representatives, according to the famous principle No taxation without representation, which had become a slogan of the Whig party. Faced with the protest of the settlers, the stamp law was repealed but it was replaced with a series of indirect taxes on certain goods (paper, paint, lead, tea), which the colonies imported from England. In 1773 the British East India Company obtained from Parliament the right to exclusively sell the tea it imported from China, cutting out the American intermediaries who had hitherto enjoyed a large and fruitful business. American tea traders organized a boycott of British goods: this action culminated in a particularly sensational episode, when some disguised as Indians attacked the Company's ships at anchor in the port of Boston and threw the cargo of tea into the sea (known episode such as Boston Tea Party, of December 16, 1773). Did any people in England support the American cause? In England, Edmund Burke recognised the justice of the American cause and Thomas Paine’s stimulated a desire for republic. What was the difference between the Patriots and Loyalists? Loyalists were those in the colonies who remained loyal to the British crown during the American war for independence. They were also known as King's Men, Tories, and Royalists. They considered themselves to be British citizens and therefore believed revolution to be treason. The majority of these Loyalists belonged to the wealthy merchant class in the colonies. Those who rebelled against the control and oppression of Britain were termed Patriots. Patriots, also known as Whigs, were the colonists who rebelled against British monarchical control. Their rebellion was based on the social and political philosophy of republicanism, which rejected the ideas of a monarchy and aristocracy – essentially, inherited power. Instead, the philosophy favored liberty and unalienable individual rights as its core values. Republicanism would form the intellectual basis of such core American documents as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The majority of Patriots were found in the revolutionary hotbed town of Boston. What happened on 4 July 1776? The legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve an independence resolution.After approval, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a document explaining this decision, which was drafted by the Commission of Five, but whose lead author was Thomas Jefferson. Congress discussed and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4th.It was more than a statement that the colonies were a new nation, since it claimed that all men had natural rights to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
