10.6 – Reading #4: Putting It All Together

READING TEXT
Module 10: Declaration of Independence and American Revolution

Beginning in the early 1600s, the first immigrants from Great Britain began to settle, or make their home, in the Americas. Over time, more and more people immigrated there for personal and economic reasons. By the 1700s, there were 13 British colonies in the Americas with names like New York and Virginia. The British king controlled these colonies. At this time, the population consisted of the British people and other European settlers. There were also enslaved and free Black people from Africa. Of course, the Indigenous communities had already lived in the Americas for thousands of years.

The British government made the laws in the colonies, but the British usually left the colonists in America alone to make their own decisions. However, by the mid-1700s, Britain began to pass many laws with new taxes for the colonists living in America. By 1764, Britain needed money because it was involved in expensive wars. The colonists now had to pay taxes on everyday items like paper, tea, and legal documents. Therefore, many American colonists started to boycott, or refuse to buy, products from Britain as a protest.

American colonists were becoming angry because the British king and government were passing laws and making decisions without including the colonists. Colonists wanted to have the same rights as all British citizens and be represented in the British Parliament; therefore, colonial leaders met in 1774 to discuss these unfair policies. However, the British government did not accept the colonists’ demands. They sent soldiers to America to fight against them. In April 1775, American colonists and British soldiers fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. This event was the start of the American Revolution.

After Lexington and Concord, many colonists wanted to declare independence from England. The colonial leaders wrote a Declaration of Independence and shared it on July 4, 1776. This document said that the American colonists choose to become independent from Great Britain and that people have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. It listed all of the complaints that the Americans had with the British and said that the government must get its power from the people instead of a king.

The colonies declared their independence, but America was not an independent nation immediately. The British and the American colonists fought for many years along the East Coast of North America. While most soldiers were white men, women also supported the war as spies, nurses and community caretakers. Black and Native Americans fought on both sides of the conflict, depending on their social, economic, and political contexts. Some American colonists, called “loyalists,” were loyal to the British monarchy, or king. Because of economic and political reasons, they wanted to keep America under the British government.

Americans won the war against the British in 1781. Then, they signed a peace treaty that ended the American Revolution. The United States was now an independent country. It became a representative democracy with a constitution and an elected government. However, for many people, the ideas of freedom in the Declaration of Independence did not apply. Slavery continued and expanded after the American Revolution, and many groups had to keep fighting for freedoms in the new United States. People in other countries around the world saw the American Revolution and started to question their governments. They saw the need to give the people more power in making decisions.

NEXT: Think about and apply what you learned from the module text!