Was Britain's Preoccupation with Raising Colonial Revenue the Principal Cause of the Outbreak of the American Revolution

Britain’s preoccupation with raising colonial revenue was the principal reason for the outbreak of the American Revolution. Discuss.

The American Revolution was a political upheaval which took place between 1765 – 1783 during which the thirteen American colonies rejected the British Monarchy and Aristocracy and overthrew the authority of Great Britain and King George III; later founding the United States of America after the 1784 Declaration of Independence grating them freedom from the domination of Britain. The causes of the American Revolution have been heavily debated. The most accepted cause being the excess of taxes which the colonial power Britain imposed on her thirteen American colonies in an effort to generate revenue for Great Britain. The need to generate this revenue arose due to the Seven Years War or French and Indian War of 1754 - 1763. Despite having fought and won against France in a bid to control and expand territory in North America, Britain was faced with a large debt of £130 million with an annual interest of £4 million.1 This massive debt needed to be erased and to do this, Britain turned to her American colonies to generate revenue to clear the debt. This led to a series of restrictive and imposing taxes known as the Revenue Acts which greatly contributed to the outbreak of the American Revolution. However this cannot be identified as the only reason. The outbreak of the American Revolution could be further attributed to displeasure with the Proclamation Act which was meant to prevent Americans from expanding further West into the territory of the Native American Indians; the Mercantilist system which limited the trade that American could conduct ergo limiting their development and wealth for the profit of the colonial mother country; the Enlightenment which contributed to new thoughts of self-rule and Government inspiring thoughts of change and movement away from the ‘Divine Right to Rule’ of the colonial monarch and finally the emergence of the Continental Congress which arose as an organized force to oppose the domination of Great Britain. So while Britain’s preoccupation with raising colonial revenue was a reason for the outbreak of the American Revolution it was neither the principle nor the only reason.

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763 which signalled the end of the Seven Years War, victorious Britain received massive amounts of land when the defeated France ceded its territory of French Canada and the Ohio Valley of North America- which was marked by the Appalachian Mountains in the East and the Mississippi River in the West, and removed their military eliminating the threat of the French on the Continent. With the conquest of this new land, Anglo-Americans began pouring into the new territory in search of newer pastures. Boston Reverend Samuel Copper expressed the sentiments of many Americans when he said,

“What fair Hopes have we of being completely delivered from that Enemy; that has so often interrupted our Tranquillity and checked our Growth! What scenes of happiness are we ready to figure ourselves, from the Hope of enjoying, in this good Land… our Settlements extending themselves with security on Every Side and changing a Wilderness into a Fruitful Field.”2

Those of the thirteen colonies saw this acquisition of land as the perfect opportunity to expand further westwards and began to pour over the Appalachian Mountains. However, although the French had lost the Ohio Valley, many irate French settlers remained refusing to relinquish their land and established trading routes. Furthermore the Native American population had never formally ceded their land meaning that the Anglo-Americans had no claim and were in fact trespassing. Britain’s attempts to stem the flow of settlers were unsuccessful as they were ignored by Anglo-Americans who continued to greedily seize land. Tensions rose and dissatisfied with British rule the pan-tribal confederacy led by Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa rebelled. They attacked a dozen British forts and were able to capture eight. Fearful of yet another possible allied French and Indian war and recognising their inability to provide administrative resources to control and monitor the colonies, Great Britain passed the Royal Proclamation of October 7th 1763. Knollenberg suggests that this Act was passed to help quiet the Indians and was to define the boundaries of the territory reserved to the Indians and announce that no white settlement would be permitted under any pretext in the territory thus reserved.3 It was an attempt to appease and maintain peace with the Native American Tribes in an effort to avert another costly rebellion or war. However this Proclamation was highly ineffective. Anglo-Americans continued to expand westwards; many saw it as their right. They believed that too much American blood had been shed in the Seven Years War to not expand their