And the main dish of the night is : The Independence :D

martes, 1 de junio de 2010


In Spring of 1776 many of the Paines ideas built momentum and got stronger. On july the 2nd the congress voted that America was free from England and two days later they aproved the declaration in july the 4th. This was the most important day in the history of this beautiful country. The third president of the United States , Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence. It consisted on rants that denounced all of the kings and parliament unfair decisions. It also stated that all men were born equal. This was quite a problem because many of the signers of the independence owed slaves but this issues were solved later on. Even though achieving the independence was hard it was like an inspiration for the colonies. This changed the history of England the U.S.A and the whole world forever. I can bet that this was a joyful dinner that the parliament and the king will remember for eternity and now days they are unable to digest it ;)You know what they say, bon appétit enjoy the main dish!

Radical: definitely not the favorite word of the king


Thomas Paine became famous not only because of the ideas and rants he wrote on the Common Sense but also for the proposals he wrote. At that time this proposals where considered as being radical and extremist but basically was the sugar in the cup of tea of the colonists. This proposals go as follows :
Independence from britain: This was the first step to build a powerful country.Many of the colonists liked the idea of loosing up from the chains of Britain , but also there was a group that didnt appreciate the idea of freedon. They were the loyalists.
Republican State of Government: This would allow them to vote for their new leaders to have an organized government and to avoid tyranny.
The Union of The new states: To join the colonies together as a new country. This served as the base for the name of the country. Oviously the United States of America
As you can see this proposals boosted their desire to gamble their lives for this cause.

Just a Paine in the head of England :)


The author of the book called Common Sense was called Thomas Paine. Besides of being an amazing writter he also was an artesan and a tax collector. Within the pages of this book Paine denounced the aristocrats of england as frauds and parasites. Paine also acused the King ad a tyrant who was seen as the mayor enemy of the american liberty. He also hated the british class order and highlighted the fact that the parliament smothered normal people without any title or social position. Thomas Paine hoped that America would serve as a model for other people in their same situation later on. I guess england will need a large amount of pain relievers to forget this ;)

Are You Swinging?



In January 1776 a short but a powerful book swung most of the colonists opinion towards a powerful desire of freedom , it was the Independence! The book was called "common sense". A pretty great name for what it would become the small stone in the giant and tyrant shoe of england. The simple and direct but forcefull language in which it was written caused a great sensation in the colonies and expressed its ideas in a clear way. Also some of the written things in this book serve as a pillar for the Declaration of Independence.The brilliant author of this book was named Thomas Paine.

Patriot or Loyalist

martes, 18 de mayo de 2010


Loyalists

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. Loyalist loved law and order and that’s why they preferred to be under British rule. Most of them even feared some patriots and considered them a joke and also something disgusting. Loyalist weren’t nice people but they didn’t want any trouble they were opposed to war but opposed to liberty.


Patriots

Patriots was the name the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies, who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution, called themselves. It was their leading figures who declared the United States of America an independent nation such as Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Patrick Henry ect.

Paul Revere


Paul Revere (bap. January 1, 1735 – May 10, 1810 was an American and a patriot in the American Revolution. He was celebrated after his death for his role as a messenger in the battles of Lexington and Concord, and also because of his midnight ride and the famous words “the British are coming, the British are coming”. But an interesting fact is that some people think that he said “the red coats are coming” because of the outfit British used.

Sons & Daughters of Liberty

viernes, 7 de mayo de 2010



The Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty was a group that was made up by people or colonist that already felt American. The group was made to create or promote the thought of liberty in all 13 colonies. These patriots disrespected everything doing with British and also vandalized some stuff of the British.



The Daughters of Liberty

The Daughters of Liberty was a successful Colonial American group. This group was formed by very important and revolutionary women that showed their patriotism by participating and taking a part of boycotts and the elaboration of clothes. This last one was a real help because they didn’t lost their identity they did clothes but also other goods.

Before the Party a Massacre? =O

martes, 4 de mayo de 2010

Better known as The Boston Massacre. The colonists were upset for taxes imposed by the parliament, they had a plan: they started torturing tax collectors, Britain also angry at the Colonists, so they sent troops to America. Colonists were protesting outside Custom House. British Troops tried to stop them, but colonist react insulting them and throwing snowballs and rocks to the soldiers. Soldiers react and break up fire to the colonists.

Victims:
Crispus Attucks
Samuel Gray
James Caldwell
Samuel Maverick
Patrick Carr
Cristopher Monk




A Tea Party?... I don't think So

Colonists were upset with taxes levied by Parliament, specially for the Tea. They wanted to have representation in the parliament. Colonists started doing boycotts to British Products; so they started buying smuggled Dutch Tea. Britain decided to decrease tea price, it will be less than Dutch tea even with the tax; but colonists refused to buy it.


On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. This was the beggining of the Revolution.



Taxes, the Cause of Revolution

The 7 years of war had doubled the British National debt. They started realizing that Colonist payed less taxes than them so they started imposing some laws, which were basically the causes of the Revolution:

Sugar Act
It all started when George Granville, prime minister that enforced the navigation laws created the Sugar Act on April 5, 1764. The main objective for the Sugar Act was raising money by basically enforcing law on all colonists. The British placed a tax on sugar, wine, and other important things. The British did this because they wanted more money. The British wanted this money to help provide more security for the colonies. The security was expensive because of the Indians and fights. The British also hoped that the act would force colonists to sell their goods to Britain as opposed to selling to other countries.

Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was passed by the British Parliament on 1765 and this was a very simple act actually. It wasn’t that different from all of the other acts but this one wasn’t all about taxes or money the only thing is that this act had the requirement that certain colonies needed to provide food and shelter or home for British soldiers in the colonies.

Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was approved or passed by the British Parliament on 1765 it was basically established to raise some money for military but also because British thought that many printed materials in the colonies must be produced on stamped paper produced in London.

Townshend Act
The Townshend act was passed by the British government in the year of 1767 and it is named like that because of the person that proposed the act. He was named Charles Townshend. The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise money in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges.

Tea Act:
Cause of the Boston Tea Party. It was passed on May 10, 1773. It permited the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the Colonists, this caused a fall in colony tea.

Minds that Lead to Revolution


John Adams

He first defended the soldiers who were responsible of the Boston Massacre. He was then elected in the Massachesetts General Court. He went to the Continental Congress as a delegate of Massachusetts, there he persuaded the Congress to declare Independence

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Samuel Adams

Was born in Boston. Leader of Sons of Liberty. He was the first to argued taxes were unfair, thinking they had no representation in the parliament. He funded committees of correspondance, this way colonies could comunicate between them. He is believed as the leader of the Boston Tea Party.

Patrick Henry

Virginia representative. Proposed the Virginia Resolves in 1765, to argue that only colonial assemblies could tax colonies. Famous for the phrase: "Give me liberty or give me death", used at his speach in the First Continental Congress at Pennsylvania. He started proposing the sense of unity between colonies, saying all of them were America

British Government As A Model

The organization and structure of Britsh colonial governments in America shared many attributes. All thirteen colonies had their own history and development. There were three important branches in these government and they were: the executive branch, which was the power belonging to the monarchy. And the legislative parliament, although it is only one more branch it counts as two because this branch was divided into two parts which were: The House of Lords which was the house where the seat was inherited by someone with important economic and social status. And the House of Commons which was the one were people were elceted and only people with properties or that paied taxes could vote.

Differences in Colonial Government

viernes, 30 de abril de 2010

Colonists didnt had a constitution it was more of a collection of documents and it was handeled by the parliament.
The only two colonies that has royal charters were: Maryland and South Carolina.
One of the most important differences was between british goverment and colonial government was that two thirds (2/3) of men could vote in the colonies and in Britain only one fourth of men could vote (1/4).

But it wasnt the differences between both types of governments that cuased problems. The problem is that british parliament wanted to impose taxes on the british colonies and obviously the colonists. But since no colonist was a part of the british parliament colonist thought that there was no reason why tehy could impose taxes. See the problem wasnt that colonists didnt wanted to pay taxes, the problem was that it wasnt really fair for them and thats when "Taxation without representation" appears.

Colonists Political Heritage

martes, 20 de abril de 2010

Britsh believed they had the best government on Earth. They had the due process of common law and also the law administration was according to establishe rules and principles and moral. They had trials with jury and freedom of press. But everything wasnt as perfect as it sounds, because in the year of 1760 colonists protested.