How the American Revolution Got Started

The events that took place before the American Revolution affected history in such a way giving the British and colonists the need to have a Revolution. The French and Indian war is the name for the war that took place between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. The aftermath of this war was a big part leading up to the American Revolution. The war changed economic, political, and social relations between the three European powers (Britain, France, and Spain) their colonies and colonists, and the natives that occupied the territories they demanded.

The war finally ended with the signing of the treaty of Paris in 1763. France and Britain suffered financially because of the war. The stamp act came along in 1765, this was a direct tax imposed by the British parliament on the colonies. The act required that almost all printed materials must be produced on stamped paper. This consisted of legal documents, magazines, newspapers etc. The purpose of this tax was to pay for troops stationed in North America after the British Victory in the seven years’ war. The stamp Act congress was a meeting of representatives from the thirteen colonies.

They discussed and acted upon the stamp act that was passed by the governing parliament of Great Britain, and did not include any representatives from the colonies. The congress then put together the declaration of the stamp act congress, which was fourteen points of colonial protest. They issued it to the king and parliament in hopes of repealing the stamp act. The Townsend acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Great Britain parliament in relation to the British colonies in North America, The acts being named after Charles Townshend who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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Overall this was an internal tax on economic activity within a single colony; Townsend wanted the external taxes which was an economic activity that goes through a colony and into other parts of the country. Such as paint, glass, tea etc. He thought we should use the money to pay the colonial governor, other parliaments and the king’s salaries. Another event was the Boston massacre, an incident that happened in March of 1770. It started out as a street fight, the civilians being mad at the British for taxing everything and ended in Britain redcoats killing five civilians.

This caused a lot rebellion in the British American colonies leading us towards the American Revolution. Five years later Shots were heard around the world. Paul Revere on April 18th yelled out the British regulars are coming! The first shot was fired by the British in Lexington, and then they went to Concord. Then our militia stopped them and turned them back to Boston. This was the start of the revolution, minute men were ready to stand in a minutes warning. The colonists were not going to stand for the British taking over their land and taxing them on all of their goods, so they fought for their rights.

US constitution There were proposals at the philadelphia constitution convention in 1787. These proposals were the virginia plan, and the new jersey plan that people did not like. The US contitution was ratified after the Great compromise came into effect. Otherwise known as the conneticut plan. This consisted of a strong national government (tax, raising an army, regulated trade, and supremed laws). Another was the seperation of powers between legislative and executive. Also there would be two houses of congress, the senate and the House of Representatives.

The states would be able to choose their US senators. Lastly there was the slavery 3/5th compromise meaning a slave counts as 3/5 of a person. When the U. S. Constitution was presented to the states, many people chose to be either Federalists or Anti-Federalists. Virginia and many other states were against the Constitution because there was no bill of rights included in it. James Madison was known as the "Father of the Constitution", and he and Alexander Hamilton were two Federalists who supported the Constitution and explicated it in the Federalist papers (1788).

On the other side George Mason, an Anti-Federalist, opposed the Constitution. Federalist (James madison) wanted a stronger government and argued to ratify the constitution. The US constitution will control factions which is a group of people with a common interest and economic seek to control government for own benefit. 1. ) Also the bigger the better in a national government, multiple factions will cancel one another out. 2. ) WE will choose the best among us to govern for the common good (republicanism) Anti Federalists – opposed to ratifying the constitution

Partrick henry thought things were okay before the philadalphia convention and we were at peace. He also thought a large government would have to resort to tyranny to control everything menaing a loss of individual rights. He thought we should have lumped the states into a consolidated government. Samuel bryan thought governing over such a large area would be unable to address local concerns. Richard henry lee didn’t know it would be such a huge change.

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