Stamp Act of 1765. The single event most contributory to the American Revolution - Essay Example

? Stamp Act of 1765 (The single event most contributory to the American Revolution) Full ID Number: of s Name: Name of School (University) Word Count: 1,558 (text only) Date of Submission: December 03, 2013 Introduction The American Revolution was a watershed shed in world history because the country of Great Britain lost a valued colonial possession in North America and more important, indicated the beginning of the slow decline of the British Empire. The successful outcome of the war for the colonials also showed a great military power can be defeated by the ragtag guerilla army composed mostly of militia members who were essentially farmers and ordinary citizens. This is an event that could have been prevented only if the British monarch at that time used common sense and listened to the voice of the colonial people and the war could have been averted. It is not hard to imagine how a disciplined British army could be defeated by irregulars or part-time soldiers raised by George Washington and taught in the use of hit-and-run guerilla tactics learned from the native Americans or the red Indians. The American Revolution was in fact a war for independence because the American people already had more than enough of all the accumulated grievances and aggravations they suffered under an autocratic British monarch. The Americans got tired of always complaining and not being heard; their previous grievances were all practically ignored and they were looked down as second-class citizens with little or no rights at all to demand what is due them in a supposedly reasonable form of enlightened rule. It is an amazing turn of events because the two combatants were not equal in power in terms of men, war materials, experience, and logistics but the American Revolution is an example of what is called as an asymmetric war. The two belligerents did not have the same war strategy or military tactics either. It was the Stamp Act of 1765 passed by the British parliament which had contributed significantly to the outbreak of hostilities in the American Revolution. Discussion There were already many grumblings from the American colonial people prior to the actual start of the American Revolution and the British monarchy could have taken heed of these complaints but it chose not to hear these valid complaints but instead chose to ignore them. It is a twist of fate that the Stamp Act of 1765 could be the so-called “final straw that broke the camel's back” as the old adage goes, because prior to this onerous or burdensome new tax, there were a good number of British official acts which drew anger and adverse reaction from the Americans. Among these previous laws were the series of Navigation Acts which restricted shipping and the resulting trade between British colonies and other countries, the intent being to force a business relationship that is mainly favorable to England only, the Molasses Act of 1733 which imposed a six pence tax per gallon of imported molasses, and followed by the Sugar Act of 1764 imposing a lower three pence tax per gallon of imported molasses to ensure a better tax compliance. All these parliament acts were intended not only to raise much-needed revenues for the government expenses associated with maintaining its various colonies but also to ensure that its monopoly on trading with the colonies is tightened as it is a very lucrative business indeed and England does not want other foreign countries as competitors. The Stamp Act of 1765 was really a way to raise new taxes for the maintenance of a standing army in North America just in case a new war breaks out and this army was intended as a deterrent. This latest act of 1765 imposed a direct tax on most printed materials used in the American colonies like on all legal documents, in newspapers, magazines, and books by requiring the use of a special paper embossed with a logo of the British revenue stamp. In effect, this new act was a form of direct tax on the colonies. The Stamp Act of 1765 produced a real crisis for the British colonial government in the sense it galvanized and united all the colonists to join together in protest of this unprecedented new tax measure for the very first time in history. There was an emerging but still loose at that time a coalition which protested abuses committed against the American royal subjects due to the stamp act as a flagrant violation of the British constitution which mandated that no taxes are imposed without any kind of representation on the people to be taxed. This British constitutional guarantee was breached by the Stamp Act of 1765 which angered most American colonists due to their feeling of their political and civil rights being trampled upon and trifled with. This was a burning issue at that time, and from a historical perspective, was the single event which gave birth to the American Revolution as opposition to it was strong and became organized. Superficially, the core of the contention was taxation without representation which had a uniting effect on all sorts American colonists, who despite their different political persuasions or beliefs, were united to oppose this new tax as a matter of principle because it violated their right. On a much deeper level, the philosophical arguments against the Stamp Act of 1765 was who in essence have more rights, the king as the sovereign ruler of all his subjects with all absolute right to declare laws as he sees fit, or the American people who deserve better treatment from the king because as human beings, they have certain inherent inalienable rights to be accorded to them which no other human being, even the king himself, can take away from them.1 The time when the act was passed was very ripe for turmoil as the people were already agitated and irritated due to all the previous oppressive legislation that were passed, as mentioned earlier elsewhere. In an unequivocal way, the Stamp Act of 1765 was the tiny little spark which ignited the American Revolution because the colonial American people simply could not take it anymore to be paying another tax on top of all the heavy tax burdens already imposed on them previously. It was the final straw which broke their patience and forbearance against an unjust government. In a time when people felt they were having a hard time making ends meet, the imposition of a new tax which they saw as unnecessary was a trigger point for the revolt. More than anything else, it signified the oppression of the British monarchy and the stamp act was the very aggravating circumstance which escalated what is a mere revolution into a war for independence. The American colonial people had a strong sense of history together with a big desire for liberty beginning with the pilgrims which arrived on the Mayflower ship. They view any acts from England as intrusive into their lives and to the liberty they zealously guard against all forms of oppression; although they are composed of many different ethnicities, religions, political beliefs, personal values, and economic interests, the stamp act united them all together because it was viewed as a threat to their cherished liberty and freedom-loving way of life.2 All these different peoples were united by their common opposition to the stamp act and with the culture of violence prevalent in the colonies, it was only a matter of time when the men and women in these colonies realized they have to take matters into their own hands. This had led to the everlasting regret of the government in Great Britain as they mishandled a tolerable or manageable problem and let it get out of hand; the English government lost control of events on popular opposition to the new tax and it snowballed instead into a war for independence. . The American colonies were relatively quiet prior to approval of the Stamp Act in 1765 as Americans were generally resigned to acceptance of the British imperial authority. However, it was the stamp act which transformed this docile acceptance into determined opposition of the tax imposed without any representation or consultation as demonstrations against it turned violent.3 It was made worse by the Townshend Act (passed in 1767) boycotts together with imports of tea into America by the Dutch East India Company at reduced tariff, an unfair competition, resulting into acts of sabotage, in particular the Boston Tea Party incident which angered the British. Conclusion Although admittedly it took about a decade of simmering anger from the time the Stamp Act was passed in 1765 and the start of the American Revolution in 1775, it was the Stamp Act which really made this anger boil over despite all the previous aggravations of oppressive laws because it affected almost everybody, especially those reading primers (as their first lesson in grammar), newspapers for the news, books, almanacs for updates on community events and for general knowledge, and legal documents needed for business deals. And a further aggravating circumstance was the tax was imposed for an entirely impertinent reason of royal patronage to maintain and station unneeded British troops in the North American soil after the end of the Seven Years” War. The American colonials saw an opening to rebel and to join in the new participative democracy they all wanted for so long that offered direct civic public participation. The popular but simple slogan “no taxation without representation” was due to the Stamp Act.4 Bibliography Morgan, Edmund S., and Helen M. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to a Revolution. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: The University of North Carolina Press, 1953. Ryerson, Richard Alan, The Revolution is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765-1776. Philadelphia, PA, USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Stanley, Richard, Lessons of American History. Bloomington, IN, USA: iUniverse LLC, 2007. Tiedemann, Joseph S., “A Tumultuous People: The Rage for Liberty and the Ambiance of Violence in the Middle Colonies in the Years Preceding the American Revolution.” Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 77, no. 4 (2010), 387-431. Read More