The American Revolution is one of the most important events in the history of the United States because it led to the formation of the United States itself, but the causes of the war are crucial to understanding. The thirteen colonies fought against Great Britain because the colonists wanted freedom and did not like the fact that the English occupied the territory. The events that helped bring about the Revolution were the French and Indian War, the various laws passed to pay debts, and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayOne of the most important things that led to the beginning of the American Revolution was the French and Indian War. Since the permanent settlement of North America, “the French and the English have been at each other's throats. Competition for trade, uncertain borders, and a turbulent population of frontiersmen ignited violence on both sides” (Fowler 2). The English and French had difficulty getting along due to conflicts over territory. In fact, the French and Indian War didn't go well for the British at first either. General Edward Braddock was sent to the colonies as commander in chief of the British Army, but he distanced himself from potential Indian allies, and colonial leaders failed to work with him. Braddock was killed on July 13, 1755 when he failed to capture Fort Duquesne. Subsequently, the war turned into a stalemate for the next two years. The war began to turn in the British's favor in 1757. William Pitt later led the British army in 1757 and helped defeat the French. French leader Montcalm thought that “France was expanding, not contracting. The grave political problem for the French in Canada in the new year of 1758 was that Old World observers in France saw the entire North American continent as a disconnected and unwelcome distraction from the European battlefields. William Pitt, of course, saw otherwise” (Borneman 98). Although the French were winning the war before William Pitt led the English, they did not fare well when he became the leader of the British forces. Pitt sent thousands of British soldiers to fight alongside the colonial troops. The English gained French-occupied parts of Canada, and the French achieved no victories in the war. The French failed to revive the Indian allies, and this forced the French to surrender Canada on September 8, 1760. While the English were still winning the war, Spain also entered as an ally of the French in 1762. The French still possessed the sugar islands in the Caribbean, but these islands later came under the control of the English. One of the major turning points was when the British captured Havana on August 13, 1762. The British also captured Manila on October 5, 1762, and this led to Britain becoming a global power. The war finally ended with the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. The French recaptured their West Indian sugar islands which were the most valuable of their colonial possessions. On the other hand, the French lost the rest of the North American empire. The English received all lands east of the Mississippi River and ceded claims to the Trans-Mississippi West and New Orleans to Spain. Cuba and the Philippines were returned to Spain after the British received Florida. France and Spain were collapsing financially and the English began to dominate the new world. Americans were very proud to be part of the British Empire as it was considered the largest global empire. AOne of the major results of the French and Indian War was when the national debt in England soared due to war expenses. The English wanted to find a way to make the colonists pay their war debt. The first act to do so was the Sugar Act, passed by the British Parliament. According to America's Homepage: Historic Documents of the United States, this was “an act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America.” Basically, this act was supposed to impose taxes on many goods such as sugar and wine. Britain also lowered taxes on molasses from six to three pence per gallon. The English were actually very greedy because they wanted more money to protect the colonies and they lowered taxes to encourage more trade with Britain instead of other countries like France. It was expensive to protect the colonies because the English had to fight against Indians, colonists, and other foreign powers. The Sugar Act was a failure because people were not satisfied with the law. Trading with Britain would mean that people in the colonies would not be able to sell goods for a lot of money. People would even lose money if they attempted to purchase major goods such as sugar and wine after the Sugar Act. Colonial leaders began a boycott of British goods to abolish the law. The Sugar Act was later repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766 which reduced taxes to one cent per gallon of imported molasses, regardless of its source. Another act that shocked people was the Stamp Act. This act required people to get a legal stamp on various papers and documents such as licenses, newspapers, and even playing cards. The colonists thought this was unfair because people owned these papers and documents for free, but the English wanted the debt paid off, so they used this method. The British thought this would be successful in repaying the French and Indian War debt, but it was not successful. The colonists "[found] themselves taxed without consent for revenue purposes, their common law due process rights curtailed, the authority of one prerogative court (Admiralty) expanded, and the establishment of another (ecclesiastical) hinted at" (Morgan 74) . The colonists continued to resist British laws, and so the Stamp Act Congress began. In October 1765, nine colonies created the Stamp Act Congress and sent delegates there. They met to protest the taxation of the colonies by the British Parliament. The Americans boycotted British goods and the British came under pressure from the Americans. The British government found it easier to repeal the law than to enforce it. The law actually hurt British trade and they didn't care much about the rights of the colonists. Around the same time that the Revenue Act was passed, a Declaratory Act was passed, giving Parliament the authority over what actions they thought were good for the empire. The colonists thought the Declaratory Act would solve the problems, but it didn't because it gave the English control over what they thought was good for the empire, and resulted in further acts later. The Quartering Act was an act passed by the British Parliament in 1765, and this affected the colonists indirectly. According to the Library of Congress, “the British further angered the American colonists with the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide barracks and supplies for British troops.” The English wanted to “protect” the colonists from the French, so they launched this act against the colonists. He had to pay the British troops for their hard work in protecting the colonists from the French soldiers.The colonists didn't really see the French as a threat, so they didn't see much purpose in the law. The English felt that their soldiers were not treated fairly in the colonies, so this act would ensure that they would receive proper care, such as providing food and drink. The colonists got nothing in return and thought it was unfair because the soldiers were not actually people the colonists knew personally. The soldiers would be random people who would stop at people's homes and ask the settlers to take care of them. All this eventually caused an uproar because the law was too unfair. It was actually opposed in some communities like New York. The law didn't work the way the British wanted, so it ended in 1767. The Townshend Revenue Acts were passed by the British Parliament in 1767. The goods taxed included lead, paper, nails, tea, and glass because they were all made in England. Because it created taxes on smuggling British goods, it prompted another boycott of them. The act was named after Charles Townshend, who "wanted to make sure these taxes were collected, so he ordered new customs offices in the colonies and created new vice-admiralty courts in the major port cities of Boston, Charleston, and Philadelphia to try cases of contraband tax evasion” (Berkin 117). The revenue from this act is intended to pay the salaries of judges and governors of Congress. It was also supposed to punish New York for failing to comply with the Quartering Act as they did not provide supplies to British troops stopping at people's homes All of the Townshend Acts, with the exception of tea taxes, were eventually repealed in March 1770. This is one of the events that led to the Boston Tea Party that occurred in 1773. . One of the events preceding the Boston Tea Party was the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, British troops fired on American civilians in Boston because American colonists taunted the British soldiers guarding it. of customs. The Americans threw snowballs at the British guards, and Thomas Preston ordered his men to fix bayonets and help secure the building by repelling the entire crowd. Private Montgomery was shot and a rifle was fired into the crowd. The remaining people thought that Preston had ordered his troops to fire and that five settlers were dead while six were wounded. This caused Captain Preston and his British soldiers to be put on trial. John Adams and Josiah Quincy Jr. defended the soldiers because they thought the soldiers should have a fair trial in the justice system. Samuel Adams stated that "the event was not a riot, but the inevitable consequence of armed soldiers maintaining order in a community that preferred the police themselves" (Allison v). The Tea Act was passed in 1773 and this helped lead to the Boston Tea Festa. It gave the East India Company the right to sell tea throughout America without paying any duties collected in Britain. This led to the reduction of the retail price, and Americans saw this act as a means to pay Townshend's duties in the colonies. Since Americans did not agree with this act, this led to resistance measures such as the Boston Tea Party which took place on December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was an event where the Sons of Liberty protested against imposed tax policies by the British government. Boston officials refused to return the tea to Britain, so the colonists destroyed 342 chests of tea by throwing them into Boston Harbor. This was done to avoid having to pay them. The way the colonists destroyed those 342 chests of tea is that they "disguised themselves, boarded British ships, and dumped them [in] Boston Harbor"(Furstinger 50). Britain was angry about all the tea being destroyed, so they tried to hold the colonists responsible for what happened. One of the results of this event was what became known as the Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts, were laws passed by the British Parliament in the spring of 1774. Five acts were created: the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, the Quartering Act of 1774, and the Quebec Act. The Boston Port Act was a direct response to the Boston Tea Party. This required the closure of Boston Harbor until the colonists paid the East India Company for all the tea destroyed. It was not only those who destroyed the tea who were held responsible, but all the Bostonians. The Massachusetts Government Act changed the government of Massachusetts to be controlled by the British government. It also limited town meetings to one per year, and members of the governor's council and sheriffs would be appointed by the king or governor rather than elected. The Administration of Justice Act gave the governor the ability to move the trials of an accused royal official to a different colony or to Great Britain itself if that person did not believe he or she had gotten a fair trial in Massachusetts. Most colonists did not believe the act was necessary because British soldiers got a fair trial after the Boston Massacre. The Quartering Act of 1774 allowed soldiers to be quartered in any building rather than just people's homes. It applied to all colonies of the United States and not just to Massachusetts alone, and was the least protested of all the Intolerable Acts. The Quebec Act established a permanent administration in Canada to replace the temporary government, gave French Canadians religious freedom, and restored French civil law. It was considered one of the intolerable acts by the colonies although it did not relate to any events in Boston, but it helped start the American Revolution. Twelve of the thirteen colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in September through October 1774. They called for a boycott of British goods, and the colonies agreed to meet again if Britain's policy did not change. Delegates voted not to import goods from Britain, but delayed voting on the policy of no exports to Britain. The colonists hoped that this would cause Britain to change its policies. The delegates also managed to get Congress to pass the Suffolk Resolutions, so the Coercive Acts would be unconstitutional. The delegates denounced the dissolution of the colonial assemblies because this would keep troops in the colonies in times of peace. Congress defended colonial rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and asserted that colonial legislatures had only the power to enact laws and pass taxes, making them subject to the royal veto. The Congress had to “invent itself [because] it was a new organization and the delegates had to decide its purpose” (Burnett 20). British troops eventually marched to Lexington and Concord. This marked the beginning of the American Revolution. General Thomas Gage and British troops headed to Concord to seize weapons and arrest both Samuel Adams and John Hancock on April 14, 1775. Gage gathered “700 soldiers and prepared to march into the [towns] of [Lexington and Concord] . Gage did not want the colonists to collect weapons to use against the soldiers” (Waldman 6). Adams and Hancock were in Lexington and escaped. The British reached Lexington at dawn and found 70 armed militiamen in formation on the green of the.