Who to Blame for the American Revolution.
War never truly has one person or side at fault; each front brings something to the table. Nevertheless, the American Revolution is a conflict that raises major debate over who to blame. The American colonies were at a standstill. How could a new nation grow with such a controlling mother country always on its back? As a result of the French Indian War, the British had to pay for their colonies war debts. For England to pay for these debts, Parliament imposed multiple harsh taxes and acts on colonists. Millions of British pounds used to fund the war were expected to be returned to Great Britain. Why does a British colony have to pay England for a war that the British were fighting in the first place? After some consideration, the American Revolution was thus a product of British oppression; limiting the New World’s settlers socially and economically, keeping their freedom on an unnecessarily shortened leash. A contributing factor in the American Revolution was the many crippling economic sanctions implemented by the British Parliament. Mercantilism, a trading system developed by the English to bring in a larger profit from their colonies worldwide, was applied to American trade. By the mid 1660s, the Navigation Acts were in full swing, colonies could only trade with English merchants. With colonial pressure, however, the Navigation Acts were revised multiple times to include allowing sea trade with the Spanish and Portuguese in 1660. To counteract that, however, the British imposed heavy taxes on imports from France in 1663. By the time 1673 began, duties were also put on seafood, which was traded with lower western Europe. All these expensive import and export tariffs were created to discourage trade between the colonies and other European countries. Great Britain also created a monopoly on tea with the East Indian Trading Company and America. Both British territories could only trade with the mother country, creating a substantial income for