Do you agree wilh the view that the Restrictive Policies of British led to the American Revolurtion?

The American Revolution separated England's North American colonies from Great Britain and led to the
formation of USA. This revolutionary war started around 1775 and lasted till 1783.

Majorly it is believed that the war was caused because of social, economical, political, ideological difference
between Great Britain and its 13 North American colonies.

Historians are generally divided into two camps in their interpretation of the American Revolution.

Some historians argue that the Revolution was primarily a colonial robelion whose aim was simply
independence from Britain. According to these historians, colonial society was essentially a democratie
society.
Other historians take a more radical view of the Revolution, seeing it as a violent social upheaval that wass
the result of a class contfict in which the lower classes of colonial society attempted to implement a greater
degree of democracy and attain greater equality.

ROBERT E. BROWN (in 195) and EDMUND S. MORGAN (in 1956) both argued that most eighteenth-century
Americansshared common poitical principles and that the social and economic conficts the progressives
had identified were not severe. The thetoric of the Revolution, they suggested, was not propaganda but a
real reflection of the ideas of the colonists.

While chalking out different causes historian also refer to DEFECTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM of the
England and the INFLUENCE OF WRITERS AND PHILOSOPHERS like THOMAS PAINE who in his writing
COMMONSENSE inspired the Americans to raise their voice against the British govemment SAMUEL
ADAMS through his writings sowed the seed of independence among the Americans

But majorly it was policies of British that were adopted for the regulation of its colonies.

JFRANKLIN JAMESON, wrting in 1926, argued, "Many economic desires, many social aspirations, were set
free by the political struggle, many aspects of society profoundly altered by the forces thus let loose."

ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER mentioned in a 1917 book that colonial merchants, motivated by their own
interest in escaping the restrictive policies of British mercantilism, aroused American resistance in the 1760s
and 1770s.

The Colonial Economy System adopted by the European empire was MERCANTALISM. The mercantile
theory states that colonies exist for the economic benefits of the mother country and are useless unless they
help to achieve profits. The mother country should draw raw materials from its possessions and sell finished
goods back to the subject nation, with a balance favoring to mother country.

Following the mercantile set of ideas, a series of laws were passed in 1651 known as NAVIGATION ACT.
These laws were designed to protect British economic interests of colonial trade and to make them
dependent on the manufactured products of mother country.
Another act in the year 1663 STAPLES ACT was passed by the parliament which forbade the colonialist from
buying any product grown or manufactured in Africa, Europe or Asia. This act basically prohibited the
importation of every article that was either not produced in England or was not shipped there first.

Thus, if a colonialist wished to buy French silks, Dutch linens or Indian tea, he would have to buy it from
British importer.

In 1773 MOLASSES ACT was passed to protect British West Indies export to the American colonies. It was
not designed to raise revenue but was used as a trade barrier.

In 1751 CURRENCY ACT was passed to control currency depreciation against silver and sterling [ British
money] to ensure its value for payments of debts to British merchants
In the year 1754, the SEVEN YEAR WAR began between the French and Indians. The war had tremendous
influence on American colonies. In the war England occupied Canada defeating France in 1763. It was a long
and costly war and nearly doubled Britain's national debt, though on positive hand it greatly expanded the
colonial territory of Britain.

Now the parliament's appetite increased for money income to pay debts off as well as to secure freshly
acquired colony.
After 1764, when colonies grew more prosperous, two themes emerge as the FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE IN
BRITISH ECONOMIC POLICY towards American colonies.

The first involved the western land, basically the area acquired from French i.e. between Alleghany Mountain
and Mississippi river. British decided to isolate the area from rest of the colony.

Under the tems of Proclamation Of 1763 and QUEBECACT of 1774, the colonists were not allowed to settle
here or trade with the Indians without permission of British government.

JOHN DARWIN in his UNFINISHED EMPIRE writes "The abrupt prohibition on settler expansion beyond the
Appalachian mountains in the 1763 Proclamation (meant to forestall further Uprisings like Pontiac's) enraged
those for whom it had been the main goal and gain of the (Seven-Years/ French and Indian) war.

The second fundamental change involved taxation. As the British victory came at a very high price so they
decide to feed that deficit from the colonists. The local government, in all 13 colonies, levied taxes on their
citizen but now with these extra taxes infuriated them as it burdened them. These majorly included The
Sugar Act, the Quartering Act and the Stamp Act.

In 1764 SUGAR ACT was passed, basically it amended the Molasses Act of 1733. It increased the duty on
molasses. It aimed at ending the smuggling trade of molasses by French and Dutch.

In 1765 parliament came up with the QUARTERING ACT. As the British wanted to protect their colony from
French and dutch attacks. The act required help and support for the troops in America and required colonial
assemblies to provide housing, food, drinks to British soldiers. It was duty of local legislature to fund their
expenditure.

The STAMP ACT of 1765 was particularly seen as offensive. Now, all legal paper products were subject to
tax. Publishers, printers and lawyers objected to this as it affected their professions in particular.
JOHN DARWIN in his book Unfinished Empire "TheAct became a popular bogey- and proof of the British
design to subvert the assemblies and unravel colonial self-government."

Colonist resisted this tax and argued that only their own elective colonial assembly could tax them and that
taxation without representation was unjust and unconstitutional.

PIERS BRENDONin his book THE DECLINE &FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE writes "The Stamp Act, which
Boston greeted with flags flown at half mast and muffled peals of bells, was viewed less as a fiscal
imposition than as a measure of oppression.'No taxation without representation' became the rallying cry of
Americans determined to enjoy 'the rights of Englishmen'"

NIALL FERGusON in his book EMPIRE writes "It was the constitutional principle - the right of the British
parliament to levy taxes on the American colonists without their consent - that was the bone of contention."

Recognizing stamp act was a lost cause, parliament repealed it in 1766.

Another act named DECLARATORY ACT was passed on March 18, 1766. This act was used as a justification
for the repeal of stamp act. This act stated that colonies are sub-ordinate and dependant to the imperial
crown and the parliament.

On the repeal of Stamp act, London implemented yet another set of taxes that is TOWNSHEND ACT of 1767.
The Act imposed import duties on 72 items including paint, tea, glass and paper. The revenue raised from it
was to provide for the salaries of colonial officers and its administration.

In 1773 TEA ACT was passed, which granted the EIC the exclusive license to import and distribute tea to
American colonists. It was created to prevent the bankruptoy of the British East India Company. This act
eliminated the custom duty on company's tea and allowed the EIC to sell tea at a lower price than smuggled
Dutch tea.

Many colonists rejected the act as they didn't like the monopoly of ElC and it damaged the position of
independent shippers, smugglers and local shopkeepers. They organized a boycott of tea act. The most
spectacular action occurred in Boston, where on December 16 a well organized group of men dressed up as
Native Americans boarded company ships and smashed open the chests of tea and dumped their content
into Boston harbor. This epis ode is popularly known as BOSTON TEA PARTY.

ANDREW O'SHAUGHNESSY in his book THE MEN WHO LOST AMERICA "Following the Boston Tea Party,
there was a national mood of retribution in Britain."

In 1774 as a retaliation of Boston Toa Party British imposed cOERCEIVE ACTS.Itwas basically apackage of
5 laws: BOSTON PORT ACT, MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT ACT, ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE ACT,
QUARTERING ACT and QUEBEC ACT.
Four of the acts were issued in direct response of the Boston Tea Paty. This act was also regarded as
INTOLERABLE ACTS which violated their constitutional rights. RICHARD HENRY LEE of Virginia described
the acts as "most wicked system for destroying the American liberty".
This particular act also led to the formation of First Continental Congress.
In 173, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN published a brief history of the British government's actions during the
preceding decade; he writes "Beginning in 1763, successive British ministries made a series of political
missteps that gradually stired the colonists to assert American liberties against British oppression.
JONATHAN BOUCHER'S A VIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION (1797) was critical of British policies but nevertheless claimed them as consttutionally valid.

Historians such as GEORGE L BEER, CHARLES ANDREws, and LAWRENCE GIPSON, studied British
colonial policy and saw Britain's attempts to manage trade and seek revenue from the colonies as
reasonable policies, especially considering Britain's war debt and colonists' relatively light tax burden.

DORA MAE CLARK in her book, BRITISH OPINION AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION discusses the British
standpoint, displaying great Britain's prowess in providing manufacturing materials and market materials to
the colonies while the colonies, in turn, supplied the motherland with "necessaries and delicacies." Clark
further emphasizes this standpoint, arguing that "in every empire a supreme legislative authority.. must
exist somewhere... otherwise it would be an empire without government, without laws, and without power..
the right of levying supplies on the people... is a right inherent in the constitution and inseparable from it: a
right so essential to government that it could not subsist without it."

In The GLORIOUS CAUSE: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, by ROBERT MIDDLEKAUFF expands on this by
stating, parliament knew what was best for the empire as a whole, granting it the supreme authority to
regulate trade whenever necessary.

Given the nature of British colonial policies, scholars have long sought to evaluate the economic incentives
the Americans had in pursuing independence. In this effort economic historians initially focused on the
period following the Seven Years War up to the Revolution. It turned out that making a case for the
avoidance of British taxes as a major incentive for independence proved difficult. The reason was that many
of the taxes imposed were later repealed.

The incentive for independence might have been the avoidance of the British regulation of colonial trade.
Unlike some of the new British taxes, the Navigation Acts had remained intact throughout this period.
Therefore, it is indeed very true that acts played as a major catalyst to spur the revolution but definitely it
was not the only cause.

SRINJANA ROY (18518051)

B.A (H) History, 3rd year.