Violence Begins

Bent on breaking the colonists' boycott of English tea, England next passed the Tea Act of 1773. A large British tea company, the East India Company, lobbied for and obtained monopoly (exclusive) rights from the England. The East India Company had a huge inventory of tea and received an exception from the tea tax. This enabled the East India Company to import tea from their huge inventory to Boston Harbor, where they planned to undersell colonial merchants. The Puritans of Massachusetts were outraged. They tried to have the tea turned back to England, but the royally appointed governor refused. On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists led by Samuel Adams disguised themselves as Indians and boarded the tea ships. They dumped all of its tea into Boston Harbor; this was the "Boston Tea Party." The task took an entire night, as the ships contained 350 chests of tea, costing about 1.87 million dollars in wasted tea (converted to today's dollars).

As punishment, Britain passed harsh laws, which were given pejorative names by the colonists: the Coercive Acts or, alternatively, the Intolerable Acts. These laws revoked Massachusetts' charter, closed Boston Harbor, installed a British general as governor, and repealed liberties like the right to hold town meetings. The closing of the harbor, in particular, was a sore blow to Massachusetts, whose economy was largely dependent on fishing and whaling.

In defiance, public sentiment turned violently against tea. Coffee gradually replaced it, and continues to be more popular than tea in America to this day. In Boston today, there is still no tax on tea as a tribute to the Boston Tea Party.

The British also passed the Quebec Act, which gave Canadians part of the Ohio Valley. This further infuriated the colonists. In addition, the Act gave the French more freedoms, such as freedom of religion for the Catholic Church. Colonists were angered because (1) they felt people in Quebec were getting more freedoms than they had and (2) they feared establishment of an Anglican Church in America.

Although many colonists remained loyal to the King and had hoped to keep peace, conflicts worsened and emotions boiled over.

Causes of the Revolutionary War

There were 9 major causes of the Revolutionary War, also called the "American Revolution":

(1) Colonists were accustomed to much independence and self-determination, and British efforts (led by the Tory political party in England) to regulate and tax were bitterly opposed by the colonies (and by the Whig political party in England; the conservative Edmund Burke was a British politician who sided with the American colonists).

(2) British burdens hurt nearly all the colonists in all walks of life.

(3) Taxes hit at a bad time: postwar depression.

(4) Legally, colonies disagreed with "virtual representation."

(5) Religious reasons: many colonists disliked Anglicans (and Catholics), and feared England would install an Anglican bishop.

(6) Colonists disliked English class distinctions.

(7) 1/3 of colonists were not even English, and thus felt no attachment to the British.

(8) Colonists accepted John Locke's philosophy of natural rights and a social contract, which conflicted with rule by a monarchy.

(9) Colonists saw a bright prospect for their future.