What Led to the American Revolution?

What led to the American Revolution? Why did the American Revolution happen? Pretty much every American knows there was an American Revolution that resulted in our independence, but few Americans understand the actual causes of the American Revolution.

What Led to the American Revolution?

The causes of the American Revolution can be traced most easily to the French and Indian War (otherwise known as the Seven Years War). That war, triggered in part by an eager and inexperienced George Washington, confirmed Britain's hold on North America and effectively ended French hopes to dominate the continent. It also put the British treasury in serious straits.

Faced with a fiscal crisis and the perceived need to maintain a troop presence in North America, Britain tightened its control over its North American colonies, and began to tax them directly for the first time. The most egregious of these direct taxes was the 1775 Stamp Act.

While it's fairly common for people to focus on the issue of taxation in studying the causes of the American Revolution, the real issue was control. The British Parliament believed that it had preeminent authority over the entire British Empire, including the colonies in North America. The American colonists, by contrast, believed they had the right to govern themselves, albeit under the protection and limited oversight of the British Crown.

Why Did the American Revolution Happen?

Tensions aside, what led to the actual shooting? After all, people have deep disagreements today regarding politics and government, taxation and control. What led the American colonists to actually take up arms and start shooting at British redcoats?

The touchstone event that made war inevitable was the Boston Tea Party of 1773. By that year, the British had rescinded all of the taxes on their North American colonies, save one....the tax on tea. The Tea Act of 1773, which helped fund the East India Company, was symbolic for both sides. From the British perspective, it showed that they had the authority (if they chose to exercise it) to levy any tax on the American colonists. Not surprisingly, this symbol wasn't lost on the American side. The colonists were deeply resentful of this power grab, and they took steps to show that resentment.

The Sons of Liberty, poorly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded British trade vessels in Boston Harbor in December 1773, and dumped over 340 crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

**Read about the Boston Tea Party, courtesy of The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.

Rather than offer a limited, political response to the Boston Tea Party, the British went ballistic! With passage of the Restraining Acts in 1774, (known popularly as the Coercive Acts or the "Intolerable Acts"), the British cleared colonial judges and elected officials out of their positions, ended town hall meetings, imposed martial law, and shut down Boston Harbor!

The colonies rallied together in response. In 1774, the First Continental Congress met to present a united front against Great Britain. And, in April 1775, blood was shed in Lexington and Concord. War was inevitable.

And in the summer of 1776, the American Revolution became a war for independence, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

**For more on the American Revolution, visit the American Revolution Blog, the American History section at Suite101.com, and (of course) surf through all the postings and links here at this blog.

Spying Methods in the American Revolution

Spying Methods in the American Revolution

The American Revolution was one of the most significant wars in modern history. The Revolutionary War wasn't simply significant for establishing the United States or for helping bankrupt and inspire the French Revolution. It was also pivotal in ushering in new technologies, innovations, and strategies in warfare. One of the most important innovations in warfare that the Revolution helped bring about was spying.

And...the man perhaps most responsible for this innovation was none other than General George Washington.





General Washington's espionage strategy is one of the factors that contributed to American victory over the British in the Revolutionary War. And it is an aspect of the war thoroughly examined by author Alexander Rose in George Washington's Spies.





In an article for American Heritage magazine, Thomas Fleming elaborates:

It is commonly understood that without the Commander in Chief’s quick mind and cool judgment the American Revolution would have almost certainly expired in 1776. It is less well known that his brilliance extended to overseeing, directly and indirectly, extensive and very sophisticated intelligence activities against the British.

Ruluff McIntyre puts it even more plainly in an article for Early America: "The misinformation machine created by George Washington was critical to the winning of the Revolutionary War."

At the beginning of the war, America's spying methods were rather "amateurish," writes John Reed for the Valley Forge Historical Society. By 1777, says Reed, spying gained greater finesse.

Are there lessons for America today? In my opinion....yes. One of the reasons the United States has struggled in its Middle Eastern policy generally and in Iraq specifically as been faulty or limited intelligence. The US has simply not done an adequate job in penetrating some of the world's cultures, and, in some cases, has badly mismanaged its intelligence gathering strategies.

General Washington understood how critical accurate intelligence was for his army and how important it was to provide faulty intelligence to the enemy. Yet another example of how learning lessons from the past can help us in the present and the future.

For Liberty and Glory - New Book by James R Gaines

I'm currently reading For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette and their Revolutions. It's a very interesting and well-researched analysis of the two most important revolutions in western history - told with a focus on two men whose lives were deeply affected by BOTH events.

George Washington, of course, headed the American Revolution as the Continental Army Commander-in-Chief. But he was also impacted by the French Revolution while serving as President of the United States. Lafayette was an invaluable aide to Washington during the American Revolution, and became something like a son to the childless Washington. Lafayette would return to France as a hero and then himself be swept up in the revolution which gripped his own nation.

So far, I'm enjoying the book and can give it a solid recommendation. I will provide a more detailed review once I've completed it.