The 5 Causes of the Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was basically a war that was fought against the monarchs of Great Britain, to the rebels of the original colonies. Before the war happened, the Continental Congress was formed to create an Army to have a defense for upcoming enemies. Many people are familiar with the General George Washington and his great accomplishments that brought forth what America is today. It is true he is one of the founding fathers, it is true he was the first president and it was true he chopped down a cherry tree (Just Kidding!). What people DO NOT realise is the General and what he stood for. Here are some fun facts about George Washington that you might not have known:

• Washington owned slaves, but at the end of his life he was against slavery
• Washington was in the midst of many savage battles, but he was never hit by a bullet or touched by a sword.
• When he was just 23 years old, Washington was in command of the entire Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War
• He would give his troops 15 lashes each time they acted inappropriately

George Washington was ruthless and for that matter, that was the reasoning behind his great success.

Now that you know something about Washington, let me now talk about how the war came about. I will not go into detail about what each subject actually is, but I will give a list as to WHY it happened.

1. The Royal Proclamation of 1763
2. Sugar Act of 1764
3. Stamp Act
4. Townshend Acts
5. Coercive or Intolerable Acts

These 5 things were the causes that led up to the war. In a nutshell, taxes, laws, and unwanted British troops were fed up by the colonists. Soon, battles took place, but I do not want to talk about that. My details are with more modern warfare, but I can say that the British would give the reason that we won because "We were uncivilized in War." Um..Ya..right. Oh and by the way England, the French were a big help too, not just because we didn't form in lines like gentlemen. I recommend watching The Patriot. If you have not seen it already, it is a movie that portrays a lot of facts for a movie and it was well constructed.

The War For Independence and Its Conflicts

How did class conflict shape the war for independence? And for independence I am talking about the war in the colonial colonies. Simple. Class conflict shaped the war for independence because of motivation and incentive. The reason why the poor were signing up for the military was a goal that could not be attained in the past by them because the British did not announce a high pay in the military. The reason why so many poor people signed up in the draft was the little ray of light at the end of the tunnel, the “light” being money. For the poor, they were told if you could rise in the ranks of the new military, fortune could be attained which would ultimately change their social status. However, during the war, riots were still breaking out among the poor and the wealthy classes in America. One riot that was brought to attention was the Fort Wilson riot, which a militia team marched to the house of James Wilson, a wealthy lawyer who opposed price controls. The reason why riots were still happening was because of the presence of the Continental Congress which the majority that made up this group was wealthy. A big uprising was led when Congress voted to pass a law that stated all officers who stayed in the military until the end would only give them half-pay, but it still ignored the common soldier.Pysnelvaynia troops soon marched to the Continental Congress and on its way, killed a captain, wounded many others and dispersed of their officers. George Washington then stepped in and cautiously made a compromise, leading to half the men in that army discharged but the other half received furloughs. At the New Jersey Line shortly after the last riot that took place, another militia was marching to the state capital of Trenton. However, Washington was ready with six hundred troops and nearly disarmed all of the militia on the spot. Three leaders of the militia were put on trial and one was pardoned. Two years after this riot came the next one at the Pennsylvania Line. The army disbanded but eighty soldiers still stuck around because they wanted their pay from the army and invaded the Continental Congress on an attempt to get their pay. Nearly half of the population of the states were black, but Washington would turn them down in a hope for freedom. After the Revolution, land was distributed to middle class and lower class farmers to help change and shape the independence of America. The main reason that class conflict shaped the war was the motivation of a wealthier lifestyle, but in the end as you see, most of it was lied upon which upset the colonists overtime with more riots breaking out.

How did the war change the situation for African Americans and Native Americans? I believe this topic is important because what were they going to do since they were apart of this war BOTH in England at the time and The New World. The war changed the situation Native Americans by pushing the “Indians” (I quote the word Indian because it was a name given from the Europeas. Indians did not call themselves "Indians") off of their land as well as killing them if there was any resistance. There was no statement in the Declaration of Independence that helped the cause for Native Americans and African Americans. Over eight hundred thousand acres were basically taken from the Mohawk tribe which ended the period of friendship. On the British side, the Indians could not be resisted because of constant Guerilla Warfare in their lands. Since this could not be established, the British gave in and set up a proposal to the Indians to give land from a line through the Appalachian mountains and was called the Royal Proclamation which angered Americans and which was the cause of Indians in favor of the British side during the revolution. For the African Americans, it is harder to describe because they fought on both sides, the British and Americans. Stated by Zinn “What the Revolution did was to create space and opportunity for blacks to begin making demands of white society.” Later on, blacks started to protest against Congress and state legislatures to finally end slavery in the states and give blacks the equal rights as the white population. Basically, before the Revolution, the Native Americans and the African Americans were in the same position as what they were after the war. But with the English out of the way, the Americans had come up with the same plan as the British did. That was to flee Indians from their land and continue to use African Americans as slaves in today’s America at the time.

Colonial America and It's War

Today, we have been taught in our schools about colonies and how America was a glorious and independent nation that had no troubles except for fighting the monstrous monarchy of Great Britain. However, early in the colonies, there were still constant wars against us Americans ourselves. So what exactly was the primary source of unrest in the colonies? The primary sources of unrest in the colonies was basically broken down into two groups fighting against each other, including but not limited to mob attacks, looting, and breaking down houses. These two groups were called ironically enough, the rich and the poor. The people living in the colonies were being greatly taxed which led to the rich gaining control in the political branch. The main reason the colonies were being overly taxed was because of the British involvement in the war against the French, so they needed money and started to tax the colonies more and more. However, the people in colonies grew upset and found an alternative to deal with this problem against the British rulings. After the Stamp Act, the colonists in Boston drew the line and formed a mob to destroy, loot, and drink the wine from the wealthy elites inside the colonies. Mostly, it was focused on British elite houses since they were the cause of the taxes. One day, a shoemaker whose name was Ebenezer MacIntosh was a leader of a mob and went to destroy the house of Andrew Oliver, a wealthy merchant from the British Empire. Not soon after this happened, the colonists demanded they wanted open meetings where their voices could be heard about the taxations, price mechanics and other political change. The Boston riot was not the only one that started to form against the Elites. There were other areas too, including New Jersey and New York. In one example, in North Carolina, regulators held a meeting to prevent collection of taxes. After the riots of seven hundred people, the governor decided to act and call on the military for help. After countless hours of a battle between military forces and regulators, the result was six regulators being hung and thousands of regulators that were injured from cannon military. Back in Boston, there was another militia that was gathering over the Stamp Act. Two to three thousand colonists marched to the house of the stampmaster’s and burned it to the ground, and after that, went to the property of the stampmaster’s and destroyed it as well. Due to the overwhelming resistance from the colonists, after all of the riots, the Stamp Act was soon the thing in the past and it was appealed. Not too long after however, the British came up with a new set of taxes to draw money from the colonies. This time, they stationed troops and took jobs when they were scarce from the working people and sailors. Not long after did another riot break out and on March 5, 1770, it led into a fight. A crowd formed and provoked the troops, but the British troops did the wrong idea and started to open fire on the citizens. This was also known as the Boston Massacre. A main lead to this event was the drafting of colonists into military services for the British. The last tax that I will talk about was the Boston Tea Party. A tax that specifically was attached to the purchase of tea. In December of 1773, a group started to dump tea from the ships into the water. This led to Coercive Acts by Parliament. After saying all of this, the main source of unrest in the colonies was numerous amounts of unwanted taxes for the colonists, because New England was in war and they needed money to fund it. So what more than to tax the colonies that they had seized long ago, but little did they know the people living there started to get a feel for independence and acted.