U.s history response paper

US History Response Paper From the sources used for this paper, it seems clear that the war for America, the American Revolution, the Rebellion of the Colonies and any other name given to the events which took place in 1776 were based on the fundamental principle of no taxation without representation (Gorn et. al., 2004) Simply put, the legality of the rule of the king was questioned on the basis of American colonies being taxed without a representation in the houses which governed them in the first place (Kent, 1994). The Patriots based the revolution in ideals such as justice, equity and common sense; therefore, I would have certainly supported the Patriots since their cause was just.
Historically speaking, Britain had vast areas of America under its control in the 1760s. These areas served extensively to increase the wealth of the island and helped it regain some of the assets which it had lost during the wars with other European powers at the time. However, Britain overplayed its hand when it wished to have exclusive trading rights with the colonies and though that whatever was good for the empire was good for the colonies (Wikipedia, 2006). Much like a line of thought today that suggests that whatever is good for the rich is good for America.
Up to the mid 1760s, many people in America considered King George to be a father figure for the colonists but the British parliament continued to enact laws which were nothing less than economic sanctions. The Sugar Act and the Currency Act are just two examples of this behavior and such acts not only made the colonists more wary of the government, they also encourage actions against the writ of the government (Marston, 2002). Common sense dictates that if a law is being ignored by everyone in sight, it should not remain a law because such conditions only lead to the lessening of the value of the law.
The British government tried to enforce the law and failed, thereafter many of the laws were repealed but the damage had been done by then. The cause of the patriots had been set in motion by the British themselves since the patriots did nothing more than to react to whatever situation was presented to them. On the other hand, the Loyalists were willing to come to terms with the British government since the British offered a lot of things besides taxation. Many of the colonies were still young and depended on the strength of the empire to help them stabilize and tame the land (Gorn et. al., 2004).
Of course the third option of remaining neutral was also available during the initial stages of the revolution but once battle lines had been drawn, it would have been very difficult to remain out of the field. Fundamentally, to support one group or another comes down to the question of ideology which is closer to one’s own thought and I feel that the ideas presented by the Patriots, many of which have been mentioned in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (Wikipedia, 2006), are closer to my ideology of right and wrong therefore I would have supported the Patriots rather than the Loyalists.
Works Cited
Gorn, E. et. al. Constructing the American Past. Longman, 2004.
Kent, D. The American Revolution. Enslow Publishers, 1994.
Marston, D. The American Revolution. Osprey Publishing, 2002.
Wikipedia. “ American Revolution” Wikipedia. org. 2006. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 Sep. 2006 Word Count: 580