A: The American Revolution is also called the American War of Independence, and to understand why it happened you have to know something of the history of colonization in the 17th and 18th centuries. In those centuries European countries sent out explorers to discover new lands. They were interested in finding products that could be brought back to Europe and sold at a high price. The countries were in debt because they were always fighting expensive wars in all parts of the world to gain control of the new lands they had discovered.

B: One of the wars took place in North America between the French and the English, and the English eventually succeeded in defeating their French enemy . The most important products that England wanted from North America were timber , which was used in ship-building and for making barrels to contain food and drink, and furs which were needed to keep people warm in the cold European winters. Over the years many of the people from Europe who sailed to other lands settled there. They liked their new life better and decided they never wanted to return to their home country. This also happened in North America.

C: In time the settlers had children and these had children of their own, who did not feel English any more but American. The Americans, as they will now be called, did not understand why they should do what the King of England told them and this is how the problems started. The way England tried to get money from the settlers was by taxing many aspects of their lives. For example, the Navigation Act made sure that tax had to be paid to England on everything that was brought into American ports. The colonists demanded “No taxation without representation” and some of them tried to avoid paying taxes by means of smuggling .

D: The Stamp Act meant that tax was paid to England on every American newspaper and other necessary documents like birth or death certificates. The Tea Act, which required Americans to pay a tax on all tea drunk in the country, resulted in what is known as the Boston Tea Party. This was not a real party of course but happened when a group of Americans went aboard an English ship in Boston harbour and threw boxes of tea into the water. In order to punish the Americans for this revolt , England closed the harbour and passed other Acts which made life for Americans more and more difficult.

E: A number of Americans went bankrupt at this time. Thanks in part to Thomas Paine, the author of the pamphlet Common Sense, many Americans were now ready to fight for their independence. They began to collect weapons ready to be used in a fight against the English soldiers and started to join together in groups called “minutemen”. The English heard that many weapons were being collected at a place called Concord and began to march there in order to seize the weapons. The Americans, warned by a man called Paul Revere tried to stop them and there was a battle at a place called Lexington. Seven Americans were killed and the American War of Independence had begun!