Week 2: The Road To The American Revolution

Great Britain relied on the colonies as a source of income. They weren't going to dump money into a group of towns overseas for nothing. The colonies in America sold and supplied raw materials to the British, which would then be made into goods that could be used and sold back to the colonies. This was a money making machine for Britain. But, as so often is the case, enough just wasn't enough. Britain wanted more money. So, they decided to raise taxes on the colonies. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but Britain wasn't going to do anything with the money that the colonies gave them; they were literally raising money just to raise money. As a result, the colonies felt cheated. The colonies also didn't have actual representation in the British Parliament; they had virtual representation. They didn't have an actual representative that they voted for that voted for them in the government. As a result, the colonies formed the argument that they were being taxed without consent, or that since they didn't have actual representation in the British government, they weren't able to fight against the tax. The British laughed off the accusations and thought that the colonies would get over it.

But they didn't. The colonies felt cheated, as their government was no longer looking out for their best interests. And so, they decided to rebel. They took matters into their own hands and staged riots, boycotted the British government, and did many other things to get the attention of Great Britain. And surprisingly, it worked. Because the colonies cut off Britain's main source of money, the British government listened to them and gave them what they wanted. This fed the colonies, and led them to think that they could get what they wanted by rioting and boycotting the British government. Several other incidents like this where the colonies revolted against Great Britain and got what they wanted caused them to become more confident in what they wanted.

As far as alternatives to the Revolution, nobody really wanted a revolution in the first place. Even up until a year before the Revolution, not a soul would even think about leaving their mother country. The colonists wanted to reform their tyrannical government, not leave it. But that all changed with the Boston Massacre and several other battles and incidents, leading the colonists to hate their mother country and want to leave it.