Reasons Americans Wanted Independence

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Reasons Americans Wanted Independence

The American colonists wanted independence for many reasons. Most of these reasons stemmed from the fact that the British saw the colonies in a very different way than the colonists did. While the colonists saw this as an opportunity to create a new society, one completely unrelated to a country 3,000 miles across the ocean, the British saw the colonies as a place to get raw materials from and send manufactured goods to. When the British told the colonists not to move west of the Appalachian Mountains, they were not happy. 

 

After the French and Indian War, Britain needed money, so the king began taxing the colonies to get the money. The Stamp Act was a direct tax to raise that money, and the colonists got quite upset. They did not want taxes meant for raising money, so the British repealed the Stamp Act and replaced it with the Townshend Act, which raised money from trade duties. The colonists felt like they were being placed under Britain's complete authority, and did not want that. The king also placed British soldiers in private homes to keep order and suppress rebellions in the colonies. The colonists were extremely angry about having to feed and house British soldiers. 

 

Another thing the colonists were upset about was that the British allowed the East India Company to have a tea monopoly in the colonies. The colonists were unable to sell their own tea anymore, so they threw a load of imported tea into Boston Harbor during what became known as the Boston Tea Party. The British closed the port, and refused to open it until the tea was paid for. They also posted soldiers in barracks in the city, and changed the constitution of Massachusetts, so that the king now chose who served in the government. This made the colonists so mad that they didn't want to associate with the British anymore, so they chose to demand independence instead of the rights of other British subjects. The outcome of the Revolutionary War was the independence the colonists wanted.