Protection and Obedience Are Not Reciprocal
The true cause of the American Revolution can be traced back to the discrepancy in thought between the British and Americans. From the British point of view, the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act, and Stamp Act seemed to be reasonable efforts to administer the colonies. To Americans, however, the British supervision appeared to be a perturbing intrusion into colonial practices of self-taxation by elected colonial assemblies. With this discrepancy came a complete colonial challenge towards Grenville’s idea that British protection of the colonies transversely holds the Colonists responsible to cooperate with the British government. As the American Revolution draws nearer with the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act 1764, …show more content…
The Proclamation of 1763 is one of the first instances where we see Grenville’s reciprocity idea broken: Britain protected America during the Seven Years War, and, reciprocally, the colonists should remain obedient - but they do the opposite. There was, of course, one major political group omitted from the Treaty of Paris: the Native Indians had not been consulted at all. With the Treaty of Paris, the British emerged with virtually all American land, whereas the Native Americans came out with nothing. Their raging anger precipitated in Pontiac's Rebellion, where the Native Americans killed hundreds of colonists. This lead to Britain's implementation of the Proclamation Act of 1763, which directed future colonial settlements away from Native American land west of the Appalachians, to avert further revolt. Albeit Britain’s proclamation enjoined settlements that encroached on Native American land, the Colonists settled anyways. The Americans simply found the proclamation hard to understand because they had just fought a war for 7 years for the land they now were being told not to step foot in. Here we see the
The true cause of the American Revolution can be traced back to the discrepancy in thought between the British and Americans. From the British point of view, the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act, and Stamp Act seemed to be reasonable efforts to administer the colonies. To Americans, however, the British supervision appeared to be a perturbing intrusion into colonial practices of self-taxation by elected colonial assemblies. With this discrepancy came a complete colonial challenge towards Grenville’s idea that British protection of the colonies transversely holds the Colonists responsible to cooperate with the British government. As the American Revolution draws nearer with the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act 1764, …show more content…
The Proclamation of 1763 is one of the first instances where we see Grenville’s reciprocity idea broken: Britain protected America during the Seven Years War, and, reciprocally, the colonists should remain obedient - but they do the opposite. There was, of course, one major political group omitted from the Treaty of Paris: the Native Indians had not been consulted at all. With the Treaty of Paris, the British emerged with virtually all American land, whereas the Native Americans came out with nothing. Their raging anger precipitated in Pontiac's Rebellion, where the Native Americans killed hundreds of colonists. This lead to Britain's implementation of the Proclamation Act of 1763, which directed future colonial settlements away from Native American land west of the Appalachians, to avert further revolt. Albeit Britain’s proclamation enjoined settlements that encroached on Native American land, the Colonists settled anyways. The Americans simply found the proclamation hard to understand because they had just fought a war for 7 years for the land they now were being told not to step foot in. Here we see the