13 British colonies?

Question

How did the 13 diverse British colonies in North America come together and form a common identity that facilitated a revolution? In other words, what factors contributed to the creation of a common identity that facilitated a revolution. (I need at LEAST 7-9 factors!)

I already have 4 points and a couple examples... here is an outline of what I have and if you have any suggestions, let me know:

1. FREEDOM FROM ARBITRARY POWER
a. common law
b. formation of government
c. magna carta

2. COMMON ENEMY - Britain
a. unfair treatment
1. taxes- stamp act, tea act, currency act, sugar act, and townshend act
b. improper representation in parliament

3. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

4. ECONOMIC PROGRESSION
a. found that they worked better in a group or society rather than individually


if you have ANY suggestions, let me know!!! I have 6 hours before this paper is due!!! thanks!!!

Answer 1

check on wikipedia.com under american revolution...they have a BUNCH of information that you may find helpful as well as links to others!

Answer 2

The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America gained independence from the British Empire.

The revolutionary era began in 1763, when the military threat to the colonies from France ended and Britain imposed a series of taxes which the colonists considered to be illegal. After protests in Boston the British sent combat troops; the Americans mobilized their militia and fighting broke out in 1775. Although Loyalists were about 15-20% of the population, the Patriots usually controlled 80-90% of the territory, for the British could only hold a few coastal cities. The height of the Revolution came in 1776, with the unanimous Declaration of Independence by the 13 states which formed the United States of America. The Americans formed an alliance with France in 1778 that evened the military and naval strengths. Two main British armies were captured at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781, leading to peace with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, with the recognition of the United States as an independent nation bounded by British Canada on the north, Spanish Florida on the south, and the Mississippi River on the west.

here is some info on the states

The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies in North America founded between 1607 (Virginia), and 1732 (Georgia). Although Britain held a dozen additional colonies in North America and the West Indies, the colonies referred to as the "thirteen" are those that rebelled against British rule in 1775. (The seven other British colonies in North America did not join the rebellion.) The 13 formed a national government under the Second Continental Congress, called themselves "The United Colonies," and formally proclaimed their independence as the United States of America on July 4, 1776--which political scientists call, "The First New Nation."

Good luck
Tell me if I was right!

Answer 3

I assume you're a student who's been asked to write an essay on this question, so first I'll say I'm a history teacher and you'd do best if you'd look at your textbook, your notes, etc. and see what they say. In other words, you need to do some work to dig out the answer. You might even try a website or two (like "wikipedia.com") under say "causes of American revolution" or some such topic.

But, I'll help you out a bit--You should work backwards from the chapter on the Revolution and see what the book says about its causes. Look for sections about such things as shared colonial values or American characteristics, that sort of thing. A few suggestions: Consider how colonial Americans, who had begun as very separate colonies with somewhat different goals (religious freedom, starting over, making a living, etc.) became increasingly different as a different nationality with both English values (belief in certain "rights" of Englishmen, for example, like self-taxation) and new American values (such as a more egalitarian view about people, belief in religous freedom and dislike of "state" -- meaning "government" -- supported churches, and so on). Shared experiences also played a role, such as the
(religious) experience of the Great Awakening, ideas from the European Enlightenment (ie. John Locke's ideas about political rights), and the experiences of fighting wars against the French.
By the 1750s, Americans just weren't "English" anymore in many ways. By the 1760s and 1770s they were beginning to realize they had different values from Britain, and that they had more in common with each other than with the "mother country". That last realization was caused by Americans' growing opposition to a series of famous British laws and actions following the French and Indian War. You can look those up in your book, too, or online. Good luck!

Answer 4

well. the main thing that united them was a common enemy, Britain. the British unfairly taxed the colonists.the stamp act, tea act, currency act, sugar act, and townshend acts, are all great examples of the unfair treatment. the colonists united in a rebellion.
but after the revolution, the colonies started fighting amongst themselves. most of the fighting wasnt settled until the constitutional convention. it was in like 1787 i think. thats where the constitution was written.
i hope i helped.

Answer 5

-----They (1) were far from England, and (2) close to each other. (3) Their environment was similiar, and (4) far different from the English urban environment. (5) Overcoming the same problems created shared identiy; they had to coorporate. The English laws regarding America (6) affected all of them together. ---Jim

Answer 6

You might try reading the charges made in the Declaration of Independence....

Answer 7

British Empire, overseas territories linked to Great Britain in a variety of constitutional relationships, established over a period of three centuries. The establishment of the empire resulted primarily from commercial and political motives and emigration movements (see imperialism); its long endurance resulted from British command of the seas and preeminence in international commerce, and from the flexibility of British rule. At its height in the late 19th and early 20th cent., the empire included territories on all continents, comprising about one quarter of the world's population and area. Probably the outstanding impact of the British Empire has been the dissemination of European ideas, particularly of British political institutions and of English as a lingua franca, throughout a large part of the world.
The First Empire

The origins of the empire date from the late 16th cent. with the private commercial ventures, chartered and encouraged by the crown, of chartered companies. These companies sometimes had certain powers of political control as well as commercial monopolies over designated geographical areas. Usually they began by setting up fortified trading posts, but where no strong indigenous government existed the English gradually extended their powers over the surrounding area. In this way scattered posts were established in India and the East Indies (for spices, coffee, and tea), defying Portuguese and later Dutch hegemony, and in Newfoundland (for fish) and Hudson Bay (for furs), where the main adversaries were the French.

In the 17th cent. European demand for sugar and tobacco led to the growth of plantations on the islands of the Caribbean and in SE North America. These colonies, together with those established by Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters in NE North America, attracted a considerable and diversified influx of European settlers. Organized by chartered companies, the colonies soon developed representative institutions, evolving from the company governing body and modeled on English lines.

The need for cheap labor to work the plantations fostered the growth of the African slave trade. New chartered companies secured posts on the African coasts as markets for captured slaves from the interior. An integrated imperial trade arose, involving the exchange of African slaves for West Indian molasses and sugar, English cloth and manufactured goods, and American fish and timber. To achieve the imperial self-sufficiency required by prevailing theories of mercantilism, and, more immediately, to increase British wealth and naval strength, the Navigation Acts were passed, restricting colonial trade exclusively to British ships and making England the sole market for important colonial products.

Developments in the late 17th and early 18th cent. were characterized by a weakening of the Spanish and Dutch empires, exposing their territories to British encroachment, and by growing Anglo-French rivalry in India, Canada, and Africa. At this time the British government attempted to assert greater direct control over the expanding empire. In the 1680s the revision of certain colonial charters to bring the North American and West Indian colonies under the supervision of royal governors resulted in chronic friction between the governors and elected colonial assemblies.

The early 18th cent. saw a reorganization and revitalization of many of the old chartered companies. In India, from the 1740s to 1763, the British East India Company and its French counterpart were engaged in a military and commercial rivalry in which the British were ultimately victorious. The political fragmentation of the Mughal empire permitted the absorption of one area after another by the British. The Treaty of Paris (1763; see under Paris, Treaty of) firmly established the British in India and Canada, but the financial burdens of war involved the government in difficulties with the American colonies. The success of the American Revolution marked the end of the first British Empire.

The Second Empire

The voyages of Capt. James Cook to Australia and New Zealand in the 1770s and new conquests in India after 1763 opened a second phase of territorial expansion. The victories of the Napoleonic Wars added further possessions to the empire, among them Cape Colony, Mauritius, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, British Guiana (Guyana), and Malta. During the second empire mercantilist ideals and regulations were gradually abandoned in response to economic and political developments in Great Britain early in the 19th cent. Britain's new industrial supremacy lent greater force to doctrines of free trade, which, as part of their critique of mercantilism, questioned the economic value of political ties between the colonies and the mother country.

The plight of large nonwhite populations within the empire became a matter of concern to humanitarians. Abolition of the slave trade (1807) and of slavery (1833) was accompanied in the colonies by efforts to improve the lot of indigenous groups. Better communications and the establishment of a regular civil service facilitated the development of a more efficient colonial administration. But the growth, notably in the English-speaking colonies, of national identity and of relative national self-sufficiency, as well as a trend of opinion in Britain favoring colonial self-government, made the British, now engaged in liberalizing their own governing institutions, willing to concede certain powers of self-government to the white colonies. In 1839, Lord Durham, in response to unrest in Canada, issued his “Report on the Affairs of British North America.” Durham stated that to retain its colonies Britain should grant them a large measure of internal self-government.

The British North America Act of 1867 inaugurated a pattern of devolution followed in most of the European-settled colonies by which Parliament gradually surrendered its direct governing powers; thus Australia and New Zealand followed Canada in becoming self-governing dominions. On the other hand, the British assumed greater responsibility in Africa and in India, where the Indian Mutiny had resulted (1858) in the final transfer of power from the East India Company to the British government. To govern territories with large indigenous populations, the crown colony system was developed. Such colonies, of which one of the most enduring was Hong Kong, were ruled by a British governor and consultative councils composed primarily of the governor's nominees; these, in turn, often delegated considerable powers of local government to local rulers.

In the later decades of the 19th cent. there occurred a revival of European competition for empire in which the British acquired or consolidated vast holdings in Africa—such as Nigeria, the Gold Coast (later Ghana), Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), South Africa, and Egypt—and in Asia—such as Burma (Myanmar) and Malaya. The size and wealth of the empire and the anxieties produced by European colonial competition stimulated a desire for imperial solidarity. The Imperial Conference, begun in 1887, represented an attempt to strengthen Britain's ties with those colonies that had become self-governing territories.

From Empire to Commonwealth

World War I brought the British Empire to the peak of its expansion, but in the years that followed came its decline. Victory added, under the system of mandates, new territories, including Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, and several former German territories in Africa and Asia. Imperial contributions had considerably strengthened the British war effort (more than 200,000 men from the overseas empire died in the war; the dominions and India signed the Versailles Treaty and joined the League of Nations), but at the same time expectations were raised among colonial populations that an increased measure of self-government would be granted.

Nationalist agitation against economic disparities, often stimulated by acts of racial discrimination by British settlers, was particularly strong in India (see Indian National Congress) and in parts of Africa. Although loath to lessen its hold over countries it had done much to develop, and thereby to incur great economic and political loss, Britain gradually capitulated to the pressures of nationalist sentiment. Iraq gained full sovereignty in 1932; British privileges in Egypt were modified by treaty in 1936; and concessions were made toward self-government in India and later in the African colonies.

In 1931 the Statute of Westminster officially recognized the independent and equal status under the crown of the former dominions within a British Commonwealth of Nations, thus marking the advent of free cooperation among equal partners. After World War II self-government advanced rapidly in all parts of the empire. In 1947, India was partitioned and independence granted to the new states of India and Pakistan. In 1948 the mandate over Palestine was relinquished, and Burma (Myanmar) gained independence as a republic. Other parts of the empire, notably in Africa, gained independence and subsequently joined the Commonwealth.

Great Britain still administers many dependencies throughout the world. They include Gibraltar in the Mediterranean; the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, and St. Helena (including Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) in the South Atlantic; Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies; and Pitcairn Island in the Pacific. These dependencies have varying degrees of self-government. In 1982 Britain clashed with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, retaking them by force after Argentina had invaded them to back up its claims of sovereignty.

Bibliography

See The Cambridge History of the British Empire (8 vol., 1929–1963); R. A. Huttenback, The British Imperial Experience (1966); J. A. Williamson, A Short History of British Expansion (2 vol., 6th ed. 1967); C. E. Carrington, The British Overseas (2d ed. 1968); C. Cross, The Fall of the British Empire (1968); G. S. Graham, A Concise History of the British Empire (1970); C. Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (1972); T. O. Lloyd, The British Empire, 1558–1982 (1984); A. Clayton, The British Empire as a Superpower, 1919–1939 (1986); A. J. Christopher, The British Empire at Its Zenith (1988); P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688–2000 (rev. ed. 2003); N. Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2003); S. Schama, A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire, 1776–2000 (2003).


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