Causes of the Revolutionary War
In the middle of the 18th century, the American colonists began to
feel that they were being treated unfairly by their British rulers.
The Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War in 1763 also
called for colonists to limit their settlement area to the lands east
of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonists did not like this
restriction. The British Royal governors had a tough time limiting
expansion into the Western frontier, and the British did not have
enough soldiers available to police the border.
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The Seven Years' War left England with a huge increase in their
national debt. King George III and his ministers decided to impose
new taxes on the American colonists to help raise money needed to
reduce the debt. The colonists were being taxed, yet they had no
representative in the British Parliament to voice their opposition to
these new taxes. By 1771, the colonists began to rebel by not paying
these new taxes and by refusing to buy British goods. This refusal to
buy goods is called a boycott. The graph to the right shows the flow of
British-made goods to the colonies. Between which years do you see
the greatest decline in British exports to America? Do you think the
boycott of British-made goods by the colonists was effective?
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Go to Activity #3 on your Worksheet and answer the question about the
Revolutionary War.
