Paul Revere And The Cause Of The Revolutionary War

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The frigid night air seared his lungs as he rushed to deliver the news. The steady beat of his horse's hooves on the dirt path matched the frenetic beating of his heart. He knew that this was going to happen, nevertheless he couldn’t prevent the tornado of butterflies that had formed in his stomach. He was merely a cog in the machinery of the revolution, but should this cog be prevented from completing its function, the entire machine would suffer. He shoved away his doubts and urged his horse faster, knowing the regulars were not far behind. Paul Revere’s ride and the Revolutionary War had begun. The Revolutionary War has remained a constant point of disagreement among historians, as the exact reasons for its occurrence have never been completely…show more content…
Obviously, the colonists resented the British, after all Samuel Adams even went as far as to train his dog to bite the Lobsterbacks, however, historians began to wonder if the revolution might have been caused by economics. These historians noted that the colonists only began to display disdain toward the British when the period of salutary neglect ended and new taxes were imposed. Salutary neglect is analogous to a parent (Great Britain) allowing his or her children to have a garage sale and charging all but one of the children (the colonies) a fee (taxes) to hold the sale. The period of salutary neglect would end when the parent imposed a fee on the previously exempt child. Logically, it makes sense that the colonists would balk at the implementation of a new tax; however, there is one issue with this historical interpretation: the size of the…show more content…
Additionally, most of the new taxes were still much lower than the taxes that citizens of Great Britain were paying even though the colonists were British citizens and had a vested interest in the French and Indian War that most mainland British citizens didn’t. If historians examine the infamous Boston Tea Party, it becomes clear that the Tea Act irked smugglers and merchants because it threatened their livelihood which would suggest an economic underpinning of the war; however, most citizens weren’t merchants and would’ve saved money by buying the cheaper tea. This leads modern historians to conclude that the Revolutionary War was a result of both ideological and economic issues, however numerous interpretations are still created everyday. For instance, the war could have easily been caused by human’s innate resistance to change like the change that occurred at the end of salutary
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