American Revolution
Austin Busch 78a 5.27.09
Did it ever cross your mind that an untrained and inexperienced army could over power a professionally trained army and succeed? This astonishing accomplishment is now known as the American Revolution. This war needed to be fought, and is the reason why America is the way it is today. Americans were tired of being over taxed and treated poorly. They also wanted to become a free country. Although thousands of lives were lost, the brave people who fought in the American Revolution gave future Americans their freedom. The American Revolution was a good idea, and should have been fought.
The unhappiness of the American people started when the first significant tax was authorized on all crates of coffee and sugar. Today this tax is called the Sugar Act. This act is just one of the many unfair taxes the British forced upon Americans in the late 1700’s, and the first of many more to come. The Sugar Act came into place because of Great Britain’s financial troubles. They were in this position because they had previously fought the French and Indian war from 1754-1763. The British spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this war. Great Britain created a 3 cent tax on foreign sugar, coffee, indigo, molasses, and certain kinds of wine. Americans were not willing to cooperate at all with these taxes. In fact, in 1770 Americans gathered in front of the Customs House on King Street when British soldiers were in Boston to support the new Townshend Act. The situation became out of hand when some of the American people started fighting with the British soldiers, and throwing snow balls at them. This caused the rest of the British soldiers to open fire into the crowd of people. A total of 5 citizens were killed. Another situation leading to the war was the tea tax that was put in place in 1770. From all the problems caused by the British came one of the most famous retaliations by the American people, the Boston Tea Party. In this situation there was a great tax applied on all teas shipped from Great Britain. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused three shiploads of taxed tea docked in the Boston harbor, the Americans finally decided to boycott all teas from Great Britain. However several crazy Americans approached the situation differently. They decided to dress up like Native Americans and board one of the tea ships. The ship in the Boston harbor was carrying approximately 1 million dollars worth of tea. They threw all the tea out of the boat, into the Boston harbor. This sent the message to Great Britain that America would not be taxed.
The King of Great Britain was furious with the behavior of the Americans. He had no other approach to the situation other than war. On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, an American silver smith, spotted the first British soldiers. Paul rode on his horse and warned the rest of the Americans that the British were coming. This alerted the rest of the Americans for the battle that was about to begin, the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This battle began on the same day the British were found in America, and it was the first battle of the American Revolution. The British soldiers were sent to capture John Hancock, and Samuel Adams because the King of Britain saw them as the key leaders and heart of the American people. In the battle of Lexington and Concord, General Thomas Gage was the British military governor. He assigned commander Francis Smith to be in command of 700 British soldiers against the American Minute Men during the battle. General Thomas Gage chose to send his men to Concord to destroy the weapons that Americans had stolen and stored there. During the battle, both sides fired volleys back and forth. At one point in the battle at Lexington, the British charged at the Minute Men killing eight Minute Men and wounding nine others. Later on, the British soldiers were unable to locate most of the hidden weapons and in the process they accidentally set fire to the courthouse. Seeing this, most of the Minute Men rushed into the city exchanging fire across the north bridge killing several British soldiers. Later in 1781, one of the largest battles of the American Revolution took place in Yorktown, Virginia. This Battle was also the last to be fought. The French decided to join forces with the United States, adding 8,700 more trained men on top of 7,000 Americans. This gave America an upper hand in the battle, and left Great Britan and commander Charles Cornwallis no other choice but to surrender.
After six years of fighting, a document called the Treaty of Paris was signed between the two sides. America had won the war and agreed to a settlement with Great Britain. This document essentially gave America its freedom, and ended the war. The document also recognized that the 13 original colonies would be free and independent states, and it established the boundaries between the two countries. It also stated that all prisoners would be set free from the war. The British surrender at Yorktown had a huge effect on the outcome on the war. The first President of our country, George Washington was the General of the war, and applied new tactics in battle to become victorious in battle.
The American Revolution was a good idea, and made a positive impact on the future for American people. Without going to war with Great Britain, America wouldn’t have been able to become the free country it is today. Without this separation from Great Britain, the American way of living would have been substaintially different. It also means that Americans living in the late 1700’s would have continued to be unfairly taxed for many more years. This could have caused people to become so upset that worse things would have happened.
In conclusion, The United States of America won the American Revolution. This war was a good decision and should have been fought by the American people. It was uncalled for that Great Britain applied taxes on all goods shipped to America. American people also proved they could be an independent country by fighting off the British in battle. This war was especially a good idea because with out fighting in it, America would still be a part of Great Britain today, and the United States of America would not exist.
