CAUSES

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During the 17th century Britain had become one of the world’s most powerful countries and had taken over other parts of the world, including a large part of North America. Britain used the COLONIES to make money by growing crops like cotton, tobacco and sugar to sell all over the world, as well as buying and selling slaves to work the plantations. By the early 1700s there were 13 English colonies in America with 2.5 million settlers living there by 1775 (many colonists considered themselves American, not British). The British government could tax the people who lived in the colonies and force them to buy British goods. They resented the TAX to pay for the British Army and the NAVIGATION ACTS which ensured only British goods were imported into America. There could be no trade with other countries. The colonists were also given boundaries on the land they could not cross as the British government had made agreements with the Native Americas without consulting the colonists. This meant they had less good farmland.

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! The citizens of America were ruled directly from Britain, but had no representation in Parliament and no one to give their views.

THE BOSTON MASSACRE: 1770. When some anti-British colonists jeered and threw snowballs and sticks at the British army the army fired on them and killed some.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY: 1773. Some colonists boarded a British ship in Boston Harbour and threw the tea overboard in a protest against the heavily taxed British tea they were forced to buy.

THE LEXINGTON INCIDENT:  1775: When the British army tired to seize a supply of Gunpowder in Concord they were fired on by 20 000 “minute men” – local farmers and clerks who were sick of British control.   

DEVELOPMENTS

CONGRESS met and made GEORGE WASHINGTON leader of the army.

1776: DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE stated that the 13 colonies were free of British control. This started 7 years of fighting in the American war of Independence. The British won most of the battles – they had a world class, well trained and well supplied army. BUT many battles took place in unfamiliar and difficult forest and mountain areas and the British underestimated their enemy.

YORKTOWN, 1781: the decisive battle. American troops had reinforced themselves with 3000 extra men plus they had support from French troops who had control of the coast around Yorktown – this meant the British could not easily get supplies. The British commander, GENERAL CORNWALLIS moved his troops onto a peninsular as they waited for supplies, which cut them off and weakened them. The Americans attacked and the British had to surrender due to lack of weapons and supplies.

 

CONSEQUENCES

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FOR AMERICA: America was now an independent country – “the land of the free”. Most citizens were delighted, but others were not and moved to Canada, which was still controlled by Britain. The Americans set up their own system of government with a list of rules (CONSITUTION), a parliament (CONGRESS) and a PRESIDENT. This system continues today.

Many poor farmers, who could not afford to buy their land, could not vote. Slavery still existed, women could not vote and Native Americans were discriminated against.

FOR BRITAIN: Britain had lost men and money on the war. The relationship between Britain and France was worsened because France had helped the Americans win. Britain colonised Australia and New Zealand to replace America as a PENAL COLONY (where criminals and convicts were sent to work on plantations and where INDENTURED SERVANTS – servants who worked for their master for a certain number of years to pay for the cost of their journey to a new land).

In the long term America and Britain developed a positive trading relationship.

 

SIGNIFICANCE

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ST: concern from the British government that overthrowing British rule and overthrowing authority might spread to other colonies and to Britain itself. It inspired the French Revolution in 1789 and the working classes in Britain to fight for their representation in parliament and voting rights.

LT; the idea of freedom and democracy continues to be an important part of Western values. America became the most powerful independent country in the world by the 20th century.

 

MAIN FACTORS

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IDEAS, GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY