Essay on British Colonies in North America

From the perspective of the American colonists, there are various reasons why North Americas British colonies revolted against the Crown. There was a fundamental disagreement between the British colonies and the Crown concerning the rule of law. This is because the colonies regarded themselves as King George III subjects while believing that the approved charters by the Crown passed through the assemblies, were the set laws of the Land. Besides, the British colonies did not trust that the King had such power of merely making changes to the approved statutes or even passing new ones without their permission (Low, Porter & Louis, 2014). For instance, such opposing sentiments regarding Crown prerogatives versus the colonial rights were clearly observed in the meeting between Earl of Granville and Franklin years before the conflict outbreak. In fact, Granville openly told Franklin that Americans are having wrong ideas concerning the Nature of the Constitution.

Resentment of Canada as well as Religious tensions also caused the British colonies in revolting against the Crown. The religious tension was as a result of thirty years of War involving the Protestants and the Catholics. This resulted in religious divisions in Europe with the Protestants to the south including the British colonies and the Catholics to the north in Canada. As a result, there was legislation designed for keeping the British subjects to the North implying that they had to be loyal to the Crown. Moreover, this is the same legislation that placed Canada towards a self-government path. Even though this bill was successful, the British colonies did not agree with it as it resulted in rambling speculation by the British colonists that a conspiracy of Catholic doctrine was afoot (Parrish & Omohundro Institute of Early American History, 2016). Furthermore, the colonists including the famous John Adams noted that the Crowns main agenda was to resurface the hated despotism of the Catholic.

Also, North Americas British colonies felt that the British Crown was not treating them fairly. As these colonies were becoming more prosperous and growing more prominent, they felt that there was a need for having more rights granted to the people of America. Most significantly, the British colonies felt the need of being freed from taxation unless they were as well had representatives in that legislation that voted for the tax. The British colonies were just contented when there was still a light British rule (Parrish & Omohundro Institute of Early American History, 2016). However, with the growth of colonies in addition to Englands government becoming more controlling after the Indian and French war, the British colonies including the American colonists began rebelling.

Another significant reason why the British colonies revolted against the Crown is because they believed that they were being denied their rights as Englishmen. Low, Porter and Louis (2014) argue that after the Indian and French war, the British colonies including the Americans developed a separateness feeling from the Crown, implying that they were less English and more American. This separateness feeling was accelerated when the Crown took the unusual move to tax the colonies for regulation, instead of revenue.

Finally, the British Crown had a misunderstanding that their colonists gradually saw themselves as a separate people, because of their voices in their personal affairs. Successions of British outright blunders, heavy-handedness, as well as political missteps, motivated more American colonists in becoming patriots of their country (Low, Porter & Louis, 2014). This resulted in a rising number of Americans, such as George Washington in becoming more convinced that the British Crown had embarked on a step of taking away their property as well as reducing them to slavery.

References

Low, A. M., Porter, A., & Louis, W. R. (2014). The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III: The Nineteenth Century. Oxford: OUP Oxford.

Parrish, S. S., & Omohundro Institute of Early American History &, C. (2016). American Curiosity : Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World. Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press.