Causes of the American Revolutionary War?

[travioli]

Do you think the causes of the break with Britain were economic reasons (i.e. Navigation Acts, indirect taxation, duties, etc.) What other social or political reasons might have contributed to the war? I'm looking for some input.

Thanks! 

[Just]

Bear in mind that not all 'Americans' were in favor of "breaking" with Brittain as you say.  An overwhelming amount of settlers seen it as nothing more than swapping one tyranny for an unexperienced tyranny.  That being said, the Sugar Act and Stamp Act played a strong role, as well as good ol political banter, guys like Thomas Paine (Englishman!) writing things like, "there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island” helped to rouse up American spirits

[batman1337]

Another stereotypical cause was the british ban on ball and powder.  Not sure if that was just 1 of 50 reasons though.

[Pepin]

Apparently a 1/3 were in favor of breaking, a decent bit more than a 1/3 were against, and the rest were apathetic. It seems as though who was in each group mattered more than the numbers.

 

In so far as the reasons, I would look at it like a long abusive relationship in that there could be 1000 factors involved in the breakup, but the ones most likely to be noted are the most major and past the tipping point. Also, much a relationship, it is just not what is said and done, but the how.it is said and done. Like you can apologize to your partner and if you do it poorly it might actually hurt you.

[jpahmad]

You should read the book Forced Founders by Woody Holton.  It pretty much sums it up.

[David Ottinger]

Essentially yes.  All those things you listed had to do with economical consent.  The colonies were forced to produce goods without having a say in their governance.  So they fought to liberate themselves from economic conquest, but that also required the liberation of the lands from monarchical rule. 

[jimmyPx]

All good points and they are correct. Remember that America was a COLONY of Britain. In the imperialistic model, raw goods are sent from the colony to the mother country who manufactured and produced the goods and those finished goods were sold to the colonies. In addition, the colonies were taxed heavily but had no political representation in Parliment (the whole taxation without representation argument).  Look at the 1st ten amendments of the Constitution (Bill of Rights) and you can see what the British were doing that so angered the colonists. Things like:

No free speech, having a state religion (Church of England), not being able to peacefully assemble (1st amendment).

Limits on the forming of militias and private ownership of guns (2nd amendment)

Quartering of soldiers in private homes (3rd amendment)

No unreasonable searches and seizures. British officials could write their own search warrents and did. (4th amendment)

Being forced to testify and incriminate yourself and facing double jeopardy when tried (5th amendment)

Having a speedy trial instead of locked up with no trial for years. (6th amendment)

Right of a jury. (7th amendment)

No cruel and unusual punishment --like drawn and quartered. (8th amendment)

Limiting the power of the central government (9th and 10th amendments)

 

So, these abuses combined with massive taxes needed to pay for the French and Indian War along with the inability to industrialize due to imperialism all led to people to revolt. The British then ruthlessly crushed the revolts and the Revolution was on !!!

 

The scary thing is the parallels between what happened then and what is happening now...but that is another topic.

[Mick Bynes]

My guess is that it was because of the economics that Britain imposed on them was the cause.

[Melissa McWilliams]

If you are truly interested in learning about the causes of the American Revolutionary War, come to a Project Appleseed event. Shoot rifle all weekend, learn to shoot unsupported in three different positions, and hear the story of the day the war began told as the "Three Strikes of the Match", and the causing events leading up to it.
 
http://appleseedinfo.org/
 
Here's a slideshow of pictures we snapped at one of our events in California (Aug 17-18 2013).

 
We have events all across America (including AK and HI) as well as parts of Canada. Just 80 bucks will get you an entire weekend's worth of shooting and history from early morning to mid-late afternoon. If you don't have a rifle, a shooting mat or a GI sling (the only gear you'll need aside from appropriate weather clothing), our instructors usually have spares to loan you.
 
We also have occasional LibertySeed events, which just tell the history over the course of an afternoon and are free of charge and open to the public (but it's much more fun to shoot...): http://libertyseed.org/
 
(I'm an Appleseed instructor, mostly at Sacramento Valley Shooting Center; we're a 501©3 nonprofit, and all of our events are 100% volunteer run and organized by individual groups of volunteers.)