what were the causes of the revolutionary war essay

The Root Causes of the American Revolution

The cause of the american revolution.

• America's Independent Way of Thinking

The Freedoms and Restrictions of Location

The control of government, the economic troubles, the corruption and control, the criminal justice system, grievances that led to revolution and the constitution.

• M.A., History, University of Florida
• B.A., History, University of Florida

The American Revolution began in 1775 as an open conflict between the United Thirteen Colonies  and Great Britain. Many factors played a role in the colonists' desires to fight for their independence. Not only did these issues lead to war , but they also shaped the foundation of the United States of America.

No single event caused the revolution. It was, instead, a series of events that led to the war . Essentially, it began as a disagreement over the way Great Britain governed the colonies and the way the colonies thought they should be treated. Americans felt they deserved all the rights of Englishmen. The British, on the other hand, thought that the colonies were created to be used in ways that best suited the Crown and Parliament. This conflict is embodied in one of the rallying cries of the ​ American Revolution : "No Taxation Without Representation."

America's Independent Way of Thinking

In order to understand what led to the rebellion, it's important to look at the mindset of the founding fathers . It should also be noted that this mindset was not that of the majority of colonists. There were no pollsters during the American revolution, but it's safe to say its popularity rose and fell over the course of the war. Historian Robert M. Calhoon estimated that only about 40–45% of the free population supported the revolution, while about 15–20% of the free white males remained loyal.     

The 18th century is known historically as the age of Enlightenment . It was a period when thinkers, philosophers, statesman, and artists began to question the politics of government, the role of the church, and other fundamental and ethical questions of society as a whole. The period was also known as the Age of Reason, and many colonists followed this new way of thinking.

A number of the revolutionary leaders had studied major writings of the Enlightenment, including those of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Baron de Montesquieu. From these thinkers, the founders gleaned such new political concepts as the social contract , limited government, the consent of the governed, and the  separation of powers .

Locke's writings, in particular, struck a chord. His books helped to raise questions about the rights of the governed and the overreach of the British government. They spurred the "republican" ideology that stood up in opposition to those viewed as tyrants.

Men such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were also influenced by the teachings of the Puritans and Presbyterians. These teachings included such new radical ideas as the principle that all men are created equal and the belief that a king has no divine rights. Together, these innovative ways of thinking led many in this era to consider it their duty to rebel against laws they viewed as unjust.

The geography of the colonies also contributed to the revolution. Their distance from Great Britain naturally created a sense of independence that was hard to overcome. Those willing to colonize the new world generally had a strong independent streak with a profound desire for new opportunities and more freedom.

The Proclamation of 1763 played its own role. After the French and Indian War , King George III issued the royal decree that prevented further colonization west of the Appalachian Mountains. The intent was to normalize relations with the Indigenous peoples, many of whom fought with the French.

A number of settlers had purchased land in the now forbidden area or had received land grants. The crown's proclamation was largely ignored as settlers moved anyway and the "Proclamation Line" eventually moved after much lobbying. Despite this concession, the affair left another stain on the relationship between the colonies and Britain.

The existence of colonial legislatures meant that the colonies were in many ways independent of the crown. The legislatures were allowed to levy taxes, muster troops, and pass laws. Over time, these powers became rights in the eyes of many colonists.

The British government had different ideas and attempted to curtail the powers of these newly elected bodies. There were numerous measures designed to ensure the colonial legislatures did not achieve autonomy, although many had nothing to do with the larger British Empire . In the minds of colonists, they were a matter of local concern.

From these small, rebellious legislative bodies that represented the colonists, the future leaders of the United States were born.

Even though the British believed in mercantilism , Prime Minister Robert Walpole espoused a view of " salutary neglect ." This system was in place from 1607 through 1763, during which the British were lax on enforcement of external trade relations. Walpole believed this enhanced freedom would stimulate commerce.

The French and Indian War led to considerable economic trouble for the British government. Its cost was significant, and the British were determined to make up for the lack of funds. They levied new taxes on the colonists and increased trade regulations. These actions were not well received by the colonists.

New taxes were enforced, including the Sugar Act and the Currency Act , both in 1764. The Sugar Act increased already considerable taxes on molasses and restricted certain export goods to Britain alone. The Currency Act prohibited the printing of money in the colonies, making businesses rely more on the crippled British economy. 

Feeling underrepresented, overtaxed, and unable to engage in free trade, the colonists rallied to the slogan, "No Taxation Without Representation." This discontent became very apparent in 1773 with the events that later became known as the Boston Tea Party .

The British government's presence became increasingly more visible in the years leading to the revolution. British officials and soldiers were given more control over the colonists and this led to widespread corruption.

Among the most glaring of these issues were the "Writs of Assistance." These were general search warrants that gave British soldiers the right to search and seize any property they deemed to be smuggled or illegal goods. Designed to assist the British in enforcing trade laws, these documents allowed British soldiers to enter, search, and seize warehouses, private homes, and ships whenever necessary. However, many abused this power.

In 1761, Boston lawyer James Otis fought for the constitutional rights of the colonists in this matter but lost. The defeat only inflamed the level of defiance and ultimately led to the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution .

The Third Amendment was also inspired by the overreach of the British government. Forcing colonists to house British soldiers in their homes infuriated the population. It was inconvenient and costly to the colonists, and many also found it a traumatic experience after events like the  Boston Massacre in 1770 .

Trade and commerce were overly controlled, the British Army made its presence known, and the local colonial government was limited by a power far across the Atlantic Ocean. If these affronts to the colonists' dignity were not enough to ignite the fires of rebellion, American colonists also had to endure a corrupt justice system.

Political protests became a regular occurrence as these realities set in. In 1769, Alexander McDougall was imprisoned for libel when his work "To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York" was published. His imprisonment and the Boston Massacre were just two infamous examples of the measures the British took to crack down on protesters. 

After six British soldiers were acquitted and two dishonorably discharged for the Boston Massacre—ironically enough, they were defended by John Adams—the British government changed the rules. From then on, officers accused of any offense in the colonies would be sent to England for trial. This meant that fewer witnesses would be on hand to give their accounts of events and it led to even fewer convictions.

To make matters even worse, jury trials were replaced with verdicts and punishments handed down directly by colonial judges. Over time, the colonial authorities lost power over this as well because the judges were known to be chosen, paid, and supervised by the British government. The right to a fair trial by a jury of their peers was no longer possible for many colonists.

All of these grievances that colonists had with the British government led to the events of the American Revolution. And many of these grievances directly affected what the founding fathers wrote into the U.S. Constitution . These constitutional rights and principles reflect the hopes of the framers that the new American government would not subject their citizens to the same loss of freedoms that the colonists had experienced under Britain's rule.

Schellhammer, Michael. " John Adams's Rule of Thirds ." Critical Thinking, Journal of the American Revolution . 11 Feb. 2013.

Calhoon, Robert M. " Loyalism and Neutrality ." A Companion to the American Revolution , edited by Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, Wiley, 2008, pp. 235-247, doi:10.1002/9780470756454.ch29 

• Major Events That Led to the American Revolution
• The Declaration of Independence
• The History of British Taxation in the American Colonies
• American Revolution: The Boston Massacre
• American Revolution: The Stamp Act of 1765
• American Revolution: Boston Tea Party
• The Original 13 U.S. States
• Questions Left by The Boston Massacre
• American Revolution: The Intolerable Acts
• An Introduction to the American Revolutionary War
• Biography of Samuel Adams, Revolutionary Activist and Philosopher
• What Led to the Boston Tea Party?
• Brief History of the Declaration of Independence
• Europe and the American Revolutionary War
• Patrick Henry
• Federalism and the United States Constitution

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• America 1765 - 1865

6 Key Causes of the American Revolution

14 Jan 2021

@histluketomes.

This educational video is a visual version of this article and presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Please see our AI ethics and diversity policy for more information on how we use AI and select presenters on our website.

The American War of Independence (1775-1783) served as a harsh lesson to the British Empire that the dominions they controlled, if treated improperly, would always be susceptible to revolution.

The British did not wish to see the thirteen colonies break away from their realm, yet their colonial policies in the late-18th century proved consistently disastrous, demonstrating a complete lack of empathy or common understanding with the American population.

One might argue that independence was always on the horizon in this period for North America, yet even in an era of enlightenment the British seemed, through sheer ignorance, negligence and pride, to seal their own fate.

As with any revolution in history, ideological differences may have provided the foundation and impetus for change, but it is so often the events in the run up to the internal struggle that enhance tensions and ultimately trigger the conflict. The American Revolution was no different. Here are 6 key causes of the American revolution.

1. Seven Years War (1756-1763)

Although the Seven Years War was a multinational conflict, the main belligerents were the British and French Empires. Each looking to expand their territory across numerous continents, both nations suffered mass casualties and racked up copious amounts of debt in order to fund the long and ardous struggle for territorial dominance.

Arguably the most important theatre of the war was in North America, which in 1756 had been geographically split between the empires of the British, French and Spanish. With key but costly victories at Quebec and Fort Niagara, the British were able to emerge victorious from the war and henceforth assimilated large swathes of previously held French territory in Canada and the Mid-West as a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

After a three-month siege of Quebec City, British forces captured the city at the Plains of Abraham. Image credit: Hervey Smyth (1734-1811), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

While British victory had removed any French and Native Indian threat (to an extent) to the thirteen colonies, the war had led to greater economic hardship in the US and an acknowledgment of the cultural differences between colonists and Britons.

Clashes in ideologies became all the more apparent as the British looked to levy higher taxes on the thirteen colonies in order to heal the debt they incurred from military and naval spending.

2. Taxes and Duties

If the Seven Years War had not exacerbated the divide between the colonies and the British metropole, the implementation of colonial taxation certainly did. The British witnessed these tensions first-hand when the Stamp Act of 1765 was introduced. Colonists bitterly opposed the new direct taxation on printed materials and forced the British Government to eventually repeal the legislation a year later.

“No taxation without representation” became an iconic slogan, as it effectively summarised the colonial outrage at the fact they were being taxed against their will and with no form of representation in Parliament.

A key cause of the American revolution which followed the Stamp Act was the introduction of Townshend Duties in 1767 and 1768. This was a series of acts that imposed new forms of indirect taxation of goods such as glass, paint, paper, lead and tea .

These duties caused outrage in the colonies and became the main root of spontaneous and violent opposition. Encouraged and rallied by propaganda leaflets and posters, such as those created by Paul Revere, colonists rioted and organised merchant boycotts. Eventually, the colonial response was met with fierce repression.

3. Boston Massacre (1770)

Just a year after the imposition of the Townshend Duties, the governor of Massachusetts was already calling for the other twelve colonies to join his state in resisting the British and boycotting their goods, which coincided with a riot in Boston over the seizure of a boat aptly named Liberty  for smuggling.

The Boston Massacre, 1770. Image credit: Paul Revere, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite these tremors of discontent, nothing suggested that the colonies might seriously consider fighting their British masters until the infamous Boston massacre of March 1770. This was one of the most significant causes of the American revolution.

A detachment of redcoats were accosted by a large crowd in the city, and bombarded with snowballs and more dangerous missiles as the cold and frustrated townsfolk vented their anger on the soldiers. Suddenly, they opened fire after a soldier was knocked down, killing five and injuring six others.

The Boston Massacre is often represented as the inevitable start of a revolution, but in fact it initially prompted Lord North’s government to withdraw the Townshend Acts and for a time it seemed like the worst of the crisis was over. However, radicals such as Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson kept the resentment ticking over.

4. Boston Tea Party (1773)

A switch had been flicked. The British government had a chance to make important political concessions to these disgruntled voices, yet they chose not to, and with this decision, the opportunity to avert rebellion was lost.

In 1772, a British ship which had been enforcing unpopular trade regulations was burned by angry patriots, while Samuel Adams set about creating Committees of Correspondence – a network of rebels across all of the 13 colonies.

Boston Tea Party. Image credit: Cornischong at lb.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Yet it was in December 1773 that the most famous and overt display of anger and resistance took place. A group of colonists led by Adams hopped aboard the East India Company trade vessel Dartmouth and poured 342 chests of tea (worth close to $2,000,000 in today’s currency) of British tea into the sea at Boston Harbour. This act – now known as the ‘Boston Tea Party’, remains important in patriotic American folklore.

5. Intolerable Acts (1774)

Rather than attempting to appease the rebels, the Boston Tea Party was met with the passing of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 by the British Crown. These punitive measures included the forced closure of Boston port and an order of compensation to the East India Company for damaged property. Town meetings were now also banned, and the authority of the royal governor was increased.

The British lost further support and patriots formed the First Continental Congress in the same year, a body where men from all the colonies were formally represented. In Britain, opinion was divided as the Whigs favoured reform while North’s Tories wanted to demonstrate the power of the British Parliament. It would be the Tories who got their way.

In the meantime, the First Continental Congress raised a militia, and in April 1775 the first shots of the war were fired as British troops clashed with militia men at the twin battles of Lexington and Concord. British reinforcements landed in Massachusetts and defeated the rebels at Bunker Hill in June – the first major battle of the American War of Independence.

Shortly after, the British withdrew into Boston – where they were besieged by an army commanded by the newly appointed General, and future president, George Washington.

6. King George III’s Speech to Parliament (1775)

On 26 October 1775 George III , King of Great Britain, stood up in front of his Parliament and declared the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion. Here, for the first time, the use of force was authorised against the rebels. The King’s speech was long but certain phrases made it clear that a major war against his own subjects was about to commence:

“It is now become the part of wisdom, and (in its effects) of clemency, to put a speedy end to these disorders by the most decisive exertions. For this purpose, I have increased my naval establishment, and greatly augmented my land forces, but in such a manner as may be the least burthensome to my kingdoms.”

After such a speech, the Whig position was silenced and a full-scale war was inevitable. From it the United States of America would emerge, and the course of history radically changed.

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5.3: The Causes of the American Revolution

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Most immediately, the American Revolution resulted directly from attempts to reform the British Empire after the Seven Years’ War. The Seven Years’ War culminated nearly a half century of war between Europe’s imperial powers. It was truly a world war, fought between multiple empires on multiple continents. At its conclusion, the British Empire had never been larger. Britain now controlled the North American continent east of the Mississippi River, including French Canada. It had also consolidated its control over India. But the realities and responsibilities of the postwar empire were daunting. War (let alone victory) on such a scale was costly. Britain doubled the national debt to 13.5 times its annual revenue. Britain faced significant new costs required to secure and defend its far-flung empire, especially the western frontiers of the North American colonies. These factors led Britain in the 1760s to attempt to consolidate control over its North American colonies, which, in turn, led to resistance.

King George III took the crown in 1760 and brought Tories into his government after three decades of Whig rule. They represented an authoritarian vision of empire in which colonies would be subordinate. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was Britain’s first major postwar imperial action targeting North America. The king forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to limit costly wars with Native Americans. Colonists, however, protested and demanded access to the territory for which they had fought alongside the British.

In 1764, Parliament passed two more reforms. The Sugar Act sought to combat widespread smuggling of molasses in New England by cutting the duty in half but increasing enforcement. Also, smugglers would be tried by vice-admiralty courts and not juries. Parliament also passed the Currency Act, which restricted colonies from producing paper money. Hard money, such as gold and silver coins, was scarce in the colonies. The lack of currency impeded the colonies’ increasingly sophisticated transatlantic economies, but it was especially damaging in 1764 because a postwar recession had already begun. Between the restrictions of the Proclamation of 1763, the Currency Act, and the Sugar Act’s canceling of trials-by-jury for smugglers, some colonists began to fear a pattern of increased taxation and restricted liberties.

In March 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. The act required that many documents be printed on paper that had been stamped to show the duty had been paid, including newspapers, pamphlets, diplomas, legal documents, and even playing cards. The Sugar Act of 1764 was an attempt to get merchants to pay an already existing duty, but the Stamp Act created a new, direct (or “internal”) tax. Parliament had never before directly taxed the colonists. Instead, colonies contributed to the empire through the payment of indirect, “external” taxes, such as customs duties. In 1765, Daniel Dulany of Maryland wrote, “A right to impose an internal tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied, a right to regulate their trade without their consent is, admitted.” 7 Also, unlike the Sugar Act, which primarily affected merchants, the Stamp Act directly affected numerous groups throughout colonial society, including printers, lawyers, college graduates, and even sailors who played cards. This led, in part, to broader, more popular resistance.

Resistance to the Stamp Act took three forms, distinguished largely by class: legislative resistance by elites, economic resistance by merchants, and popular protest by common colonists. Colonial elites responded by passing resolutions in their assemblies. The most famous of the anti-Stamp Act resolutions were the Virginia Resolves, passed by the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765, which declared that the colonists were entitled to “all the liberties, privileges, franchises, and immunities . . . possessed by the people of Great Britain.” When the Virginia Resolves were printed throughout the colonies, however, they often included a few extra, far more radical resolutions not passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses, the last of which asserted that only “the general assembly of this colony have any right or power to impose or lay any taxation” and that anyone who argued differently “shall be deemed an enemy to this his majesty’s colony.” 8 These additional items spread throughout the colonies and helped radicalize subsequent responses in other colonial assemblies. These responses eventually led to the calling of the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765. Nine colonies sent delegates, who included Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Thomas Hutchinson, Philip Livingston, and James Otis. 9

The Stamp Act Congress issued a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances,” which, like the Virginia Resolves, declared allegiance to the king and “all due subordination” to Parliament but also reasserted the idea that colonists were entitled to the same rights as Britons. Those rights included trial by jury, which had been abridged by the Sugar Act, and the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. As Daniel Dulany wrote in 1765, “It is an essential principle of the English constitution, that the subject shall not be taxed without his consent.” 10 Benjamin Franklin called it the “prime Maxim of all free Government.” 11 Because the colonies did not elect members to Parliament, they believed that they were not represented and could not be taxed by that body. In response, Parliament and the Crown argued that the colonists were “virtually represented,” just like the residents of those boroughs or counties in England that did not elect members to Parliament. However, the colonists rejected the notion of virtual representation, with one pamphleteer calling it a “monstrous idea.” 12

The second type of resistance to the Stamp Act was economic. While the Stamp Act Congress deliberated, merchants in major port cities were preparing nonimportation agreements, hoping that their refusal to import British goods would lead British merchants to lobby for the repeal of the Stamp Act. In New York City, “upwards of two hundred principal merchants” agreed not to import, sell, or buy “any goods, wares, or merchandises” from Great Britain. 13 In Philadelphia, merchants gathered at “a general meeting” to agree that “they would not Import any Goods from Great-Britain until the Stamp-Act was Repealed.” 14 The plan worked. By January 1766, London merchants sent a letter to Parliament arguing that they had been “reduced to the necessity of pending ruin” by the Stamp Act and the subsequent boycotts. 15

The third, and perhaps, most crucial type of resistance was popular protest. Riots broke out in Boston. Crowds burned the appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, in effigy and pulled a building he owned “down to the Ground in five minutes.” 16 Oliver resigned the position the next day. The following week, a crowd also set upon the home of his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who had publicly argued for submission to the stamp tax. Before the evening was over, much of Hutchinson’s home and belongings had been destroyed. 17

Popular violence and intimidation spread quickly throughout the colonies. In New York City, posted notices read:

PRO PATRIA, The first Man that either distributes or makes use of Stampt Paper, let him take care of his House, Person, & Effects. Vox Populi; We dare.” 18

By November 16, all of the original twelve stamp distributors had resigned, and by 1766, groups calling themselves the Sons of Liberty were formed in most colonies to direct and organize further resistance. These tactics had the dual effect of sending a message to Parliament and discouraging colonists from accepting appointments as stamp collectors. With no one to distribute the stamps, the act became unenforceable.

Pressure on Parliament grew until, in February 1766, it repealed the Stamp Act. But to save face and to try to avoid this kind of problem in the future, Parliament also passed the Declaratory Act, asserting that Parliament had the “full power and authority to make laws . . . to bind the colonies and people of America . . . in all cases whatsoever.” However, colonists were too busy celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act to take much notice of the Declaratory Act. In New York City, the inhabitants raised a huge lead statue of King George III in honor of the Stamp Act’s repeal. It could be argued that there was no moment at which colonists felt more proud to be members of the free British Empire than 1766. But Britain still needed revenue from the colonies. 19

The colonies had resisted the implementation of direct taxes, but the Declaratory Act reserved Parliament’s right to impose them. And, in the colonists’ dispatches to Parliament and in numerous pamphlets, they had explicitly acknowledged the right of Parliament to regulate colonial trade. So Britain’s next attempt to draw revenues from the colonies, the Townshend Acts, were passed in June 1767, creating new customs duties on common items, like lead, glass, paint, and tea, instead of direct taxes. The acts also created and strengthened formal mechanisms to enforce compliance, including a new American Board of Customs Commissioners and more vice-admiralty courts to try smugglers. Revenues from customs seizures would be used to pay customs officers and other royal officials, including the governors, thereby incentivizing them to convict offenders. These acts increased the presence of the British government in the colonies and circumscribed the authority of the colonial assemblies, since paying the governor’s salary had long given the assemblies significant power over them. Unsurprisingly, colonists, once again, resisted.

Even though these were duties, many colonial resistance authors still referred to them as “taxes,” because they were designed primarily to extract revenues from the colonies not to regulate trade. John Dickinson, in his “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” wrote, “That we may legally be bound to pay any general duties on these commodities, relative to the regulation of trade, is granted; but we being obliged by her laws to take them from Great Britain, any special duties imposed on their exportation to us only, with intention to raise a revenue from us only, are as much taxes upon us, as those imposed by the Stamp Act.” Hence, many authors asked: once the colonists assented to a tax in any form , what would stop the British from imposing ever more and greater taxes on the colonists? 20

New forms of resistance emerged in which elite, middling, and working-class colonists participated together. Merchants reinstituted nonimportation agreements, and common colonists agreed not to consume these same products. Lists were circulated with signatories promising not to buy any British goods. These lists were often published in newspapers, bestowing recognition on those who had signed and led to pressure on those who had not.

Women, too, became involved to an unprecedented degree in resistance to the Townshend Acts. They circulated subscription lists and gathered signatures. The first political commentaries in newspapers written by women appeared. 21 Also, without new imports of British clothes, colonists took to wearing simple, homespun clothing. Spinning clubs were formed, in which local women would gather at one of their homes and spin cloth for homespun clothing for their families and even for the community. 22

Homespun clothing quickly became a marker of one’s virtue and patriotism, and women were an important part of this cultural shift. At the same time, British goods and luxuries previously desired now became symbols of tyranny. Nonimportation and, especially, nonconsumption agreements changed colonists’ cultural relationship with the mother country. Committees of Inspection monitored merchants and residents to make sure that no one broke the agreements. Offenders could expect to be shamed by having their names and offenses published in the newspaper and in broadsides.

Nonimportation and nonconsumption helped forge colonial unity. Colonies formed Committees of Correspondence to keep each other informed of the resistance efforts throughout the colonies. Newspapers reprinted exploits of resistance, giving colonists a sense that they were part of a broader political community. The best example of this new “continental conversation” came in the wake of the Boston Massacre. Britain sent regiments to Boston in 1768 to help enforce the new acts and quell the resistance. On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered outside the Custom House and began hurling insults, snowballs, and perhaps more at the young sentry. When a small number of soldiers came to the sentry’s aid, the crowd grew increasingly hostile until the soldiers fired. After the smoke cleared, five Bostonians were dead, including one of the ringleaders, Crispus Attucks, a former slave turned free dockworker. The soldiers were tried in Boston and won acquittal, thanks, in part, to their defense attorney, John Adams. News of the Boston Massacre spread quickly through the new resistance communication networks, aided by a famous engraving initially circulated by Paul Revere, which depicted bloodthirsty British soldiers with grins on their faces firing into a peaceful crowd. The engraving was quickly circulated and reprinted throughout the colonies, generating sympathy for Boston and anger with Britain.

Resistance again led to repeal. In March 1770, Parliament repealed all of the new duties except the one on tea, which, like the Declaratory Act, was left, in part, to save face and assert that Parliament still retained the right to tax the colonies. The character of colonial resistance had changed between 1765 and 1770. During the Stamp Act resistance, elites wrote resolves and held congresses while violent, popular mobs burned effigies and tore down houses, with minimal coordination between colonies. But methods of resistance against the Townshend Acts became more inclusive and more coordinated. Colonists previously excluded from meaningful political participation now gathered signatures, and colonists of all ranks participated in the resistance by not buying British goods and monitoring and enforcing the boycotts.

Britain’s failed attempts at imperial reform in the 1760s created an increasingly vigilant and resistant colonial population and, most importantly, an enlarged political sphere—both on the colonial and continental levels—far beyond anything anyone could have imagined a few years earlier. A new sense of shared grievances began to join the colonists in a shared American political identity.

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Congress issues a “declaration on the causes and necessity of taking up arms”.

America's Wars, Causes of

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• The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood ISBN: 9781598533774 Publication Date: 2015-07-28 The volume includes an introduction, headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical notes about the writers, and detailed explanatory notes, all prepared by our leading expert on the American Revolution. As a special feature, each pamphlet is preceded by a typographic reproduction of its original title page.
• The American Revolution 1775-1783 by Richard L. Blanco (Editor) Call Number: 10th Floor Reading Room E 208 .A433 1993 ISBN: 082405623X Publication Date: 1993-03-01 ... this panoramic reference comprises some 700 detailed mini-essays on battles, campaigns, skirmishes, raids, massacres, and sea fights, along with approximately 400 biographical sketches.
• Atlas of early American history : the Revolutionary era, 1760-1790 by Lester Jesse Cappon Publication Date: 1976
• Atlas of the American Revolution by Kenneth Nebenzahl Publication Date: 1974
• Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution by Jack P. Greene (Editor); J. R. Pole (Editor) ISBN: 1557862443 Publication Date: 1992-04-15 This encyclopedia, to which many of the foremost scholars in the field have contributed, describes clearly and readably the many different ideas and events that constitute what we know as the American Revolution. Equally suitable for browsing and as a reference source, and illustrated with many paintings, drawings and documents of the period, this substantial volume is likely to remain a standard work on the subject for many years to come.
• The Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America by John Mack Faragher (Editor) ISBN: 0816017441 Publication Date: 1988-12-01 Spanning the entire colonial period - from the earliest settlements of the 16th century to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which concluded the American Revolution - this reference work contains 1500 alphabetical entries. The ideas, events, people and developments which defined the birth of the United States have been brought together in a volume which emphasizes key discoveries, battles and trends which shaped the era.
• Encyclopedia of the American Revolution by Mark Mayo Boatner Publication Date: 1966
• The Historical Atlas of the American Revolution by Ian Barnes; Charles Royster (Editor) Call Number: Reference Collection [2nd Floor] E 208 .B36 2000 ISBN: 0415922437 Publication Date: 2000-08-03
• Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution by Terry M. Mays ISBN: 0810834049 Publication Date: 1999-01-14 The Southern campaigns from 1778 to 1781, which are often scantily detailed in American Revolution histories, receive full discussion in this dictionary.
• New American Revolution Handbook by Theodore P. Savas; J. David Dameron ISBN: 9781611210620 Publication Date: 2010-07-01 "The authors use clear and concise writing broken down into short and easy to understand chapters complete with original maps, tables, charts, and dozens of drawings to trace the history of the Revolution from the beginning of the conflict through the final surrender in 1783."
• The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution by Edward G. Gray (Editor); Jane Kamensky (Editor) ISBN: 9780199746705 Publication Date: 2012-12-06 The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution introduces scholars, students and generally interested readers to the formative event in American history. In thirty-three individual essays, by thirty-three authorities on the Revolution, the Handbook provides readers with in-depth analysis ofthe Revolution's many sides, ranging from the military and diplomatic to the social and political; from the economic and financial, to the cultural and legal.

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Tip: Do not truncate (use the *) with origin. This will retrieve "original" material dealing with the actual conduct of the war rather than its causes. Therefore it may produce many irrelevant records.

Sample Published Collections of Primary Source Materials

• The road to independence : a documentary history of the causes of the American Revolution: 1763-1776 by John. Braeman Publication Date: 1963 Hesburgh Library Lower Level (Ranges 1 - 38) (E 203 .B812 )
• The American Revolution by John H. Rhodehamel (Editor) Call Number: General Collection E 203 .A579 2001 ISBN: 1883011914 Publication Date: 2001-04-01 Drawn from letters, diaries, newspaper articles, public declarations, contemporary narratives, and private memoranda this title brings together over 120 pieces by more than 70 participants to create a unique literary panorama of the War of Independence. It includes a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory notes, and an index.
• Sources and documents illustrating the American revolution, 1764-1788, and the formation of the federal Constitution by Samuel Eliot Morison Publication Date: 1929 General Collection E 203 .M826s
• Declaration of Independence in Historical Context by Barry Alan Shain ISBN: 0300159056 Publication Date: 2014-01-01 General Collection E 221 .D38 2014
• The Remembrancer, or impartial repository of public events Publication Date: 1775 Microforms [Lower Level] Newspaper Collection Microfilm N13 reel 5863-5865
• The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood Call Number: General Collection E 203 .A5787 2015 ISBN: 9781598533774 Publication Date: 2015-07-28 "a landmark collection of British and American pamphlets from the political debate that divided an empire and created a nation... The volume includes an introduction, headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical notes about the writers, and detailed explanatory notes... As a special feature, each pamphlet is preceded by a typographic reproduction of its original title page."

For other collections of primary source held by Notre Dame use:

• united states history revolution, 1775-1783
• (cause* OR origin OR origins) AND ( sources OR documents)

Tip:  Do not truncate (use the *) with origin.  This will retrieve "original" material dealing with the actual conduct of the war rather than its causes.  Therefore it may produce many irrelevant records.

Also see the "American Memory" project at Library of Congress Collections .

• A complete collection of all the protests of the peers in Parliament, entered on their journals, since the year 1774, on the great questions of the cause and issue of the war between Great-Britain and America, &c to the present time.
• Journal of the Committee of the States containing the proceedings from the first Friday in June, 1784, to the second Friday in August, 1784. Published by order of Congress
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Revolutionary War

A colorful, story-telling overview of the American Revolutionary War

Causes of the American Revolution

It’s impossible to know all the causes of the American Revolution. This page will cover what we do know.

In the beginning, the colonies were proud to be British. There were small instances of Parliament’s control that bothered the colonists, like the  Currency Acts of 1751 and 1764 . But when  the French and Indian War  took place (1754 – 1763),  King George III  lost a great deal of money due to buying expensive supplies for his army and the colonies. In order to pay off his debt, he imposed taxes on the colonies without their consent.

This outraged the colonists.

It’s an old saying that you should always look for the money trail. The  Protestant Reformation  had one, and money was certainly one of the major causes of the American Revolution.

The colonists did not like being taxed for things that had always had free. They immediately began a boycott of British goods.

Now it was the king’s turn to be furious.

King George wasted no time in sending soldiers across the Atlantic to make sure the colonies were behaving as they should.

Soon, what is perhaps the most famous of the causes of the American Revolution came to pass. A young ship owner brought over a ship full of taxed tea from Britain and declared he would see it unloaded …

Causes of the American Revolution : The Boston Tea Party

The colonists decided they would see none of the tea leave the ship. A group of colonists dressed as American Indians boarded the ship at night and threw the tea overboard into the harbor, ruining all of it. When they saw one of their comrades trying to stuff some in his pockets, they stripped the tea from his grasp and sent him home without his pants. They then stripped the ship owner of his clothes and tarred and feathered him.

This event is now known as  the Boston tea party .

I can’t resist reminding you of Mr. Banks’ comment in the movie  Mary Poppins  that when the tea was thrown into the harbor, it became  “too weak for even Americans to drink.”

Causes of the American Revolution : The Intolerable Acts

In response to the Boston Tea Party, the king imposed  the “Intolerable Acts.”

One of the more major causes of the American Revolution, the Intolerable Acts were …

• The Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston until the  Dutch East India Company  had  been repaid for the destroyed tea;
• The Massachusetts Government Act, putting the government of Massachussets almost entirely under direct British control;
• The Administration of Justice Act, allowing royal officials to be tried in Britain if the king felt it necessary for fair justice;
• The Quartering Act, ordering the colonies to provide lodging for British soldiers
• The Quebec Act, expanding British territory in Canada and guaranteeing the free practice of  Roman Catholicism .

The Quartering Act incensed the colonies most. The king and parliament revived an old law requiring colonists to house British soldiers in their homes. Because of the  Boston Massacre  (4 years earlier, in 1770), the colonists were afraid of the soldiers in their homes. They would lay awake at night with fear for their children embedded in their hearts like a knife.

This is when the colonies decided that something must be done.

Causes of the American Revolution : The First Continental Congress

Out of the Intolerable Acts  the First Continental Congress  was born.

In this congress 55 delegates representing 12 of the 13 colonies—Georgia withheld—argued back and forth as to whether or not they should separate from Britain for killing their people, firing cannons on their cities, closing down Boston’s sea port, and, primarily, imposing the intolerable acts.

The congress was in session for two solid months in September and October of 1774. After much dissension, they decided to send a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” to King George, hoping their demands would be met. At this point, the colonists still could not foresee separating from Britain.

More ominously, they also endorsed the “Suffolk Reserves,” resolutions passed by Suffolk county in Massachusetts—certainly one of the causes of the American Revolution.

Massachusetts was the colony worst hit by the Intolerable Acts. The Suffolk Reserves warned  General Thomas Gage  that Massachussets would not tolerate their enforcement and that they would retain possession of all taxes collected in Massachusetts.

After sending the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, the First Continental Congress separated to await Britain’s reply.

Causes of the American Revolution : The Battles of Lexington and Concord

Tension was far too high for the king to respond favorably. The colonists began to amass arms and prepare for what they felt was an inevitable battle with the oppressive British army.

It came soon enough.  Paul Revere’s ride on April 19, 1775  was to announce the approach of British soldiers to stamp out colonist resistance in the towns of Lexington and Concord.

Lexington  was first. The British met only 77 minutemen, and at first were pleased to allow them to leave. However, from some unknown place a shot was fired, and the British opened up on the Americans. Eight were killed, ten wounded, and the British suffered but one minor casualty.

It was made up for at  Concord . There the colonists were prepared.

400 minutemen sent the British troops scurrying back to Lexington, completely unprepared to be fired on from the woods during their retreat. Apparently, guerilla tactics were considered ungentleman-like in that day and age.

Ungentlemanly or not, they were effective, and the Americans routed the British all the way back to Boston. There were nearly 300 British casualties, including 73 dead and 23 missing. The Americans suffered less than 100.

Causes of the American Revolution : The Second Continental Congress

It was time to do something.  The Continental Congress gathered again  in May of 1775, where they would become and remain the government of the colonies until the end of the Revolutionary War.

They quickly made an attempt at peace, sending  the Olive Branch Petition  to King George declaring their loyalty. When it reached the King he pushed it aside and didn’t even read it, and in response he sent a proclamation to the Congress saying that they would all hang for their defiance to the crown.

The Olive Branch Petition

I thought you might be interested in the proposition the 2nd Continental Congress made to King George III:

“Attached to your Majesty’s person, family, and Government, with all devotion that principle and affection can inspire; connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure your Majesty, that we not only most ardently desire the former harmony between her and these Colonies may be restored, but that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your Majesty’s name to posterity.”

( from u-s-history.com )

This united the colonies and birthed the  Declaration of Independence , which bore us to war with Britain.

And there you have the causes of the American Revolution.

HoW to Write an Essay on the REvolutionary War

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American Revolution

Dbq: causes of the american revolution, using evidence: nys regents style dbq.

U.S. History

American Revolution: DBQ: Causes of the American Revolution

Students will examine and evaluate primary and secondary source documents to construct an essay that analyzes the causes of the American Revolution.

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149 American Revolution Essay Topics & Examples

If you’re looking for American Revolution topics for research paper or essay, you’re in the right place. This article contains everything you might need to write an essay on Revolutionary war

🗽 Top 7 American Revolution Research Topics

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American Revolution, also known as Revolutionary War, occurred in the second half of the 18th century. Among its causes was a series of acts established by the Crown. These acts placed taxes on paint, tea, glass, and paper imported to the colonies. As a result of the war, the thirteen American colonies gained independence from the British Crown, thereby creating the United States of America. Whether you need to write an argumentative, persuasive, or discussion paper on the Revolutionary War, this article will be helpful. It contains American Revolution essay examples, titles, and questions for discussion. Boost your critical thinking with us!

• Townshend Acts and the Tea Act as the causes of the American Revolution
• Ideological roots of the American Revolution
• English government and the American colonies before the Revolutionary war
• Revolutionary War: the main participants
• The American Revolution: creating the new constitutions
• Causes and effects of the American Revolution
• Revolutionary War: the key battles

Signifying a cornerstone moment for British colonial politics and the creation of a new, fully sovereign nation, the events from 1765 to 1783 were unusual for the 18th century. Thus, reflecting all the crucial moments within a single American Revolution Essay becomes troublesome to achieve. However, if you keep in mind certain historical events, then you may affect the quality of your paper for the better.

All American Revolution essay topics confine themselves to the situation and its effects. Make sure that you understand the chronology by searching for a timeline, or even create one yourself! Doing so should help you easily trace what date is relevant to which event and, thus, allow you to stay in touch with historical occurrences. Furthermore, understand the continuity of the topic, from the creation of the American colony until the Declaration of Independence. Creating a smooth flowing narrative that takes into consideration both the road to revolution and its aftereffects will demonstrate your comprehensive understanding of the issue.

When writing about the pre-history of the Revolution, pay special attention to ongoing background mechanisms of the time. The surge of patriotism, a strong desire for self-governed democracy, and “Identity American” all did not come into existence at the Boston Tea Party but merely demonstrated themselves most clearly at that time. Linking events together will become more manageable if you can understand the central motivation behind them.

Your structure is another essential aspect of essay writing, with a traditional outline following the events in chronological order, appropriately overviewing them when necessary. Thus, an excellent structure requires that your introduction should include:

• An American Revolution essay hook, which will pique your readers’ interest and make them want to read your work further. Writing in unexpected facts or giving a quote from a contemporary actor of the events, such as one of the founding fathers, are good hook examples because they grab your readers’ attention.
• A brief overview of the circumstances. It should be both in-depth enough to get your readers on the same level of knowledge as you, the writer, and short enough to engage them in your presented ideas.
• An American Revolution essay thesis that will guide your paper from introduction to conclusion. Between overviewing historical information and interest-piquing hooks, your thesis statement should be on-point and summarize the goal of your essay. When writing, you should often return to it, assessing whether the topics you are addressing are reflective of your paper’s goals.

Whatever issues you raise in your introduction and develop in your main body, you should bring them all together in your conclusion. Summarize your findings and compare them against your thesis statement. Doing so will help you carry out a proper verdict regarding the problem and its implications.

The research you have carried out and the resulting compiled bibliography titles will help you build your essay’s credibility. However, apart from reading up on the problem you are addressing, you should think about reading other sample essays. These may not only help you get inspired but also give excellent American Revolution essay titles and structure lessons. Nevertheless, remember that plagiarizing from these papers, or anywhere else, is not advisable! Avoid committing academic crimes and let your own ideas be representative of your academism.

Want to sample some essays to get your essay started? Kick-start your writing process with IvyPanda and its ideas!

• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution: Book Analysis Even these facts from the author’s biography make “The Shoemaker and the Tea Party” a reliable source of the knowledge on the American past.”The Shoemaker and the Tea Party” is based on the story of […]
• The American Revolution and Its Effects It is an acknowledgeable fact that the American Revolution was not a social revolution like the ones that were experienced in France, Russia or China, but it was a social revolution that was aimed at […]
• Sex During the American Revolution American Revolution is one of the most prominent and groundbreaking events in the history of the United States of America. One of the most interesting facts from the video was the usage of clothing and […]
• Figures of the American Revolution in «The Shoemaker and the Tea Party» The book The Shoemaker and the Tea Party by Alfred Young is a biographical essay describing events of the 18th century and life one of the most prominent figures of the American Revolution, George Robert […]
• The Unknown American Revolution: Book Review In his book, Gary unveiled that the American Revolution’s chaos was through the power of Native Americans, enslaved people, and African Americans, not the people in power. The book boldly explains the origins of the […]
• Changes Leading to the Colonies to Work Together During the American Revolution Ideally, the two settlements formed the basis of the significant social, political, and economic differences between the northern and southern colonies in British North America.
• American Revolution: Principles and Consequences One expanded the number of lands of the young country due to the confiscation of territories that were under the possession of the English government and loyalists, that is, people supporting the crown.
• The American Revolution’s Goals and Achievements The Patriots’ goals in the War, as well as the achievements of the revolution and the first Constitution in relation to different groups of population will be discussed in this essay.
• Haudenosaunee’s Role in the American Revolution They also signed treaties in relation to the support needed by the Americans and the Indians to avoid the conflicts that arose between the nations.
• Causes and Foundations of the American Revolution Speaking about what led to the revolution in the United States – the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, or the Stamp Act – the most rational reason seems to be the result of all these […]
• The American Revolution: Role of the French The revolutionary war became the fundamental event in the history of the USA. For this reason, the rebellion in America became a chance to undermine the power of the British Empire and restore the balance […]
• Causes of the American Revolution: Proclamation & Declaration Acts The Proclamation was initially well-received among the American colonists because of the emancipation of the land and the cessation of hostilities.
• The American Revolution and Its Leading Causes Two acts passed by the British Parliament on British North America include the Stamp Act and the Townshend Act, which caused the Boston Massacre.
• A Woman’s Role During the American Revolution Doing so, in the opinion of the author, is a form of retribution to the people long gone, the ones who sacrificed their lives in honor of the ideals that, in their lifetime, promised a […]
• The Battles of the American Revolution The initial cause of the battle is the desire of the British to take over the harbors in Massachusetts. The battle of Bunker Hill marked the end of the peaceful rebellions and protests and became […]
• American Revolution’s Domestic and Worldwide Effects The American Revolution was a world war against one of the world’s most powerful empires, Great Britain, and a civil war between the American Patriots and the pro-British Loyalists. The main domestic effects of the […]
• The Heroes of the American Revolution However, their role was forgotten by the emergence of heroes such as Washington and Adams, white men who reformed the country.
• American Revolution: Seven Years War in 1763 As a result of the passing the Tea Act in 1773 British East India company was allowed to sell tea directly to the colonist, by passing the colonists middlemen.
• The History of American Revolution and Slavery At the same time, the elites became wary of indentured servants’ claim to the land. The American colonies were dissatisfied with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 it limited their ability to invade new territories and […]
• The Experience of the American Revolution One of such events was the American Revolution, which lasted from 1775 to 1783; it created the independent country of the United States, changed the lives of thousands of people, and gave them the real […]
• Causes of the American Revolution Whereas we cannot point to one particular action as the real cause of the American Revolution, the war was ignited by the way Great Britain treated the thirteen united colonies in comparison to the treatment […]
• American Revolution Rise: Utopian Views Therefore, the problem is that “the dedication to human liberty and dignity exhibited by the leaders of the American Revolution” was impossible because American society “…developed and maintained a system of labor that denied human […]
• Impact of American Revolution on the French One After the success of the American Revolution, there was a lot of literature both in praise and criticism of the war which found its way to the French people.
• The Leadership in Book ‘Towards an American Revolution’ by J. Fresia It’s an indication of the misuse of the people by the leaders in a bid to bar them from enlightenment and also keep them in manipulative positions.
• American Revolution Information People in the colonies were enslaved in tyranny of churches as well as monarchies, and Benjamin, believed that with proper undertaking of education, the colonies would arise to their freedom and Independence.
• American Revolution: An Impact on the Nation The American Revolution can be characterized as one of the milestone events in American history which led to the formation of the state and the nation.
• Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution Radical interpretations of the Revolution were refracted through a unique understanding of American society and its location in the imperial community.
• The American Revolution U.S. History But at the end the pride of the English King as well as the desperation of the English monarchy forced the hand of the settlers to draw the sword.
• The American Revolution From 1763 to 1777 In America 1763 marked the end of a seven-year war which was known as the India and French war and also marked the beginning of the strained as well as acrimonious relations between the Americans […]
• The History of American Revolution The American Revolution refers to a period between1763 and 1784 when the events in the 13th American colonies culminated in independence from the British colonial rule.
• American Revolution: Causes and Conservative Movement To ease workplace stress, managers must be able to recognize the effects of stress on employees and to determine the cause.
• The American Revolution Causes: English and American Views The American Revolution was brought about by the transformations in the American government and society. The taxes were not welcome at all since they brought about a lot of losses to the colonies.
• American Revolution and Its Historical Stages The following paragraphs are devoted to the description of the stages that contributed to a rise of the revolution against British rule.
• The American Revolution and Political Legitimacy Evolution At the beginning of the article, the Anderson highlights Forbes magazine comments where they stated that the businesses that would continue to feature in the future Forbes directory are the ones that head the activists’ […]
• American Revolution: Perspective of a Soldier Revolution became the event that radically changed the American society of that period and, at the same time, contributed to its unification.
• American Revolution and the Current Issues: Course The understanding of the critical issues in the history of the American Revolution will make the students intellectually understand the subsequent wars in American History and the events that may occur later.
• American Revolution in the United States’ History Americans had a very strong desire to be free and form their own government that would offer the kind of governance they wanted.
• Vietnam War and American Revolution Comparison Consequently, the presence of these matters explains the linkage of the United States’ war in Vietnam and the American Revolution to Mao’s stages of the insurgency.
• American Revolution in Historical Misrepresentation Narrating the good side of history at the expense of the bad side passes the wrong information to the students of history.
• American Revolution Against British Power They considered the fashions and customs of the British to be the best in the world; they sent their children to London for education, and they were very proud of the constitutional monarchy that governed […]
• The American Revolution as a People’s Revolution An idealized conception of a revolution leads to the conclusion that the American Revolution was not a representation of a “people’s revolution”.
• Battle of Brandywine in the American Revolution The Squad’s mission is to reconnoiter the location of the enemy during the night before the battle and prevent the possible unexpected attack of the enemy by enhancing the Principles of War.
• African Americans in the American Revolution Both the slave masters and the British colonizers sought the help of the African Americans during the American Revolution. The revolutionary nature of the American Revolution did not resonate with both the free and enslaved […]
• Post American Revolution Period: Washington Presidency The formation of the National Government during the years of 1789-1815 was associated with many challenging situations, and it was characterized by the opposition of the Federalists and Republicans, among which the important roles were […]
• American Revolution: Reclaiming Rights and Powers As a result, British Government Pursued policies of the kind embodied in the proclamation of the 1763 and the Quebec act that gave Quebec the right to many Indian lands claimed by the American colonists […]
• Women Status after the American Revolution This revolution enabled women to show men that females could participate in the social life of the society. Clearly, in the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century women were given only […]
• American Revolution of 1774 First of all, one of the main causes of the conflict and the following confrontation between the British power and the colonies was the disagreement about the way these colonies should be treated and viewed.
• Impact of Rebellion on the American Revolution The rebellion was retrogressive to the cause of the American Revolution because it facilitated the spread of the ruling class and further hardened the position of the ruling class regarding the hierarchical arrangement of slavery.
• Liberty! The American Revolution The thirteen colonies were not strangers to the oppressions and intolerable acts of the British parliament. The oppressions of the colonies by the British became a regular occurrence and the people sought a solution.
• Was the American Revolution Really Revolutionary? The nature of the American Revolution is considered to be better understandable relying on the ideas offered by Wood because one of the main purposes which should be achieved are connected with an idea of […]
• The American Struggle for Rights and Equal Treatment To begin with, the Americans had been under the rule of the British for a very long time. On the same note, the British concentrated on taxing various establishments and forgot to read the mood […]
• African American Soldier in American Revolution It was revealed that the blacks were behind the American’s liberation from the British colonial rule, and this was witnessed with Ned Hector’s brevity to salvage his army at the battle of Brandywine.
• The Revolutionary War Changes in American Society The Revolution was started by the breakaway of the 13 American Colonies from the British Crown. A significant consequence of the American Revolution is that it led to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence […]
• American Revolution and the Crisis of the Constitution of the USA In whole, the American people paving the way to independence have to face challenges in the form of restricted provisions of Constitution, wrong interpretation and understanding of the American Revolution, and false representation of conservative […]
• American Revolutionary War: Causes and Outcomes The colonists vehemently objected to all the taxes, and claimed that Parliament had no right to impose taxes on the colonies since the colonists were not represented in the House of Commons.
• Effects of the American Revolution on Society In order for the women to fulfill, the role they needed to be educated first thus the emphasis of education for them in what came to be known as Republican Motherhood. Women faced limitations in […]
• The Ideas of Freedom and Slavery in Relation to the American Revolution Although many Founders discussed the phenomenon of slavery as violating the appeals for freedom and liberty for the Americans, the concepts of slavery and freedom could develop side by side because the Founders did not […]
• Summary of “Abraham Lincoln” and “The Second American Revolution” by James M. McPherson According to McPherson, the war, that is, the Civil War, was aimed at bringing about liberty and ensuring the extension of protection to the citizenry which he had a clue of the fact that the […]
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Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — American Revolutionary War

Essays on American Revolutionary War

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Women's Participation in The American Revolutionary War

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The Tremendous Battle at Germantown

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The Second American Revolution: Its Impact and Legacy

The problems the united states had with paying debts after the revolutionary war, the boston siege: american revolution war, the context of the american revolutionary war from a historical perspective, the features that contribute to the unique character of the american revolutionary war, the difference between american and french revolutions, the battle of saratoga, insurgency and asymmetric warfare in the american revolutionary war  , joseph plumb martin and his role in the revolutionary war, war on the colonies: french, indian war and american revolution, what influenced the patriots' win in the revolutionary war, causes of the american revolution: political, economic and ideolodical, an analytical dive into the battle of yorktown, revolutionary war geographic advantages, valley forge: a test of resilience, the pros and cons of the articles of confederation.

April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783

Eastern North America, North Atlantic Ocean, the West Indies

Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Monmouth, Battles of Saratoga, Battle of Bemis Heights

United States War of Independence, Revolutionary War

Before the flare-up of the American Revolutionary War, there had been growing tensions and conflicts between the British crown and its thirteen colonies. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies met with heated protest among many colonists. The Stamp Act and Townshend Acts provoked colonial opposition and unrest, leading to the 1770 Boston Massacre and 1773 Boston Tea Party.

By June 1776, a growing majority of the colonists had come to favor independence from Britain. On July 4, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson.

In March 1776, the British led by General William Howe retreated to Canada to prepare for a major invasion of New York. A large British fleet was sent to New York with the aim to crush the rebellion. Routed by Howe’s Redcoats on Long Island, Washington’s troops were forced to evacuate from New York City. However, the surprise attack in Trenton and the battle near Princeton, New Jersey after that, marked another small victory for the colonials and revived the flagging hopes of the rebels.

British strategy in 1777 involved two main prongs of attack aimed at separating New England from the other colonies. Following the American victory in Battle of Saratoga, France and America signed treaties of alliance on February 6, 1778, in which France provided America with troops and warships.

On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by Great Britain and by the United States of America, officially ended the American Revolutionary War.

Britain recognized the United States of America as an independent country. The Constitution was written in 1787 to amend the weak Articles of Confederation and it organized the basic political institutions and formed the three branches of government: judicial, executive, and legislative.

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Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 177?

Unnamed hamas leader says netanyahu is 'holding up' gaza ceasefire, hostage deal • idf names soldier killed in southern gaza .

Ritchie Torres to 'Post': Israel is not alone - exclusive

"what we're witnessing is not a change in american policy but a clash of personalities," explained the new york democratic rep. ritchie torres..

While Rep. Ritchie Torres thinks that the US’s recent abstention in the UN Security Council which led to the passage of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, was wrong, he also wants Israel to know that “ the Israel-US relationship remains fundamentally intact.”

“What we are witnessing is not a change in American policy, but a clash of personalities,” the New York Democratic congressman explained to The Jerusalem Pos t, adding that this “is natural in every relationship.” The crisis between the US and Israel is “more perception than reality,” according to Torres.

Torres thought that the US abstention was a mistake because it did not tie the demands for a ceasefire to the release of the hostages. “The de-linking of those two demands gives enhanced leverage to Hamas in the war and the hostage negotiations. I thought it was a colossal misjudgment on the part of the US,” he explained.

Torres visits Israel to show that the Jewish state is not alone

Torres brought a delegation made up of local leadership and clergy from his district to Israel on Sunday with UJA-Federation New York, to send the message that Israel is not alone. This may seem like a surprising stance from the progressive congressman, but Torres says the connection is natural.

“There is no greater expression of progressive values in the Middle East than the state of Israel,” he said, adding that no country is more protective of the rights of minorities.

Israeli airstrike in Damascus kills top Iranian general - report

The strike killed mohammad reza zahedi, a top commander in the iranian revolutionary guards corps (irgc), according to a report in reuters, citing a security source in lebanon. .

Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the top commander in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for Lebanon and Syria was assassinated in an air strike on Monday.

Zahedi is the highest ranking Iranian killed since the current war started, even higher than Sayyed Reza Mousavi, who was killed in December, the Jerusalem Post has learned.

Besides his wide ranging responsibilities for terro on Israel's borders, he was the highest level interlocutor for Tehran with Hezbollah.

This means that although Israel has not taken credit, Iran and Hezbollah are already accusing Jerusalem of involvement, since removing Zahedi could be seen as a blow to the management of the Lebanese terror groups' rocket attacks on Israel. 

Iranian press reported that Zahedi was meeting with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad at the time of the strike, but these reports could not be independently verified.

Zahedi also commanded the Quds Force's Unit 18000, responsible, among other things, for smuggling ammunition and precision weapons into Lebanon. He had also commanded the IRGC's Air Force and Imam Hussein Division in the past. 

Iranian FM, embassy in Lebanon respond: "breach of all international conventions"

Initial reports indicate that at least six people were killed in the strike, which targeted a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy. 

The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon responded with fury to the alleged strike, saying: "This barbaric Israeli aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws, diplomatic norms, and the requirements of the Vienna Convention."

In a call with the Syrian foreign minister on Monday, Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that Tehran holds Israel responsible for the consequences of the attack, Iran's state media reported on Monday.

The strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus is "a breach of all international conventions," Amirabdollahian added.

The strikes come less than a day after the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Jamraya, near Damascus, was hit in alleged Israeli airstrikes.

Maariv Online contributed to this developing story.

Hamas leader: Netanyahu is creating barriers to reaching hostage deal

An unnamed Hamas leader told Al Jazeera that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to buy time and take in the anger of the families of the hostages held in Gaza, but he is creating obstacles to the agreement, Al Jazeera reported Monday.

The Hamas leader added that the Israeli delegation does not have the authority to reach an agreement. He stressed Hamas's position on the necessity to stop Israeli "aggression," withdraw "the occupation forces," referring to Israel, return the displaced in Gaza, and intensify reconstruction and providing aid. 

Hamas arrests PA intelligence officers, accuses them of collaboration with Israel - report

Reports claim between six to ten pa intelligence officers were arrested on charges of collaborating with the idf and israel's shin bet..

An unconfirmed number of Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence Service members were apprehended in Gaza by Hamas after being accused of sneaking into the Gaza Strip in collaboration with Israel, according to Arab media reports on Monday, citing an interview on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV.

According to the reports, the General Intelligence Service members entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt during a mission to secure and facilitate the humanitarian aid truck convoys. At some point after entrance, they were apprehended by Hamas terrorists.

An unnamed Hamas official told Al-Aqsa TV that the PA General Intelligence Service leader, Majed Faraj, was using this mission as a guise with the aim of creating a "state of confusion and chaos among the ranks of the home front, and with security from the Israeli Shin Bet service and the enemy army.”

The Hamas Official claimed that ten service members were arrested and that the issue had been "dealt with."

Netanyahu vows to shut Al Jazeera down when bill passes in Knesset

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday with Coalition Whip Ofir Katz to ensure the closure of Qatari state-funded news outlet, Al Jazeera, in Israel as soon as the Knesset passed the law enabling such an action, the Likud stated.

The law, which would enable the prime minister to shut down Al Jazeera's broadcasts in Israel, is set to undergo its second and third reading in the Knesset on Monday evening.

Netanyahu reportedly said he would do so as soon as he was able.

Eilat building damaged after hostile aircraft infiltrates Israel from Jordan

The aircraft caused minor damage to a building and no casualties were reported, the idf added..

A hostile aircraft infiltrated into Israeli territory from Jordan on Sunday night and fell in the area of Eilat, the military said.

The aircraft caused minor damage to a building, and no casualties were reported, the IDF added.

Later, the IDF clarified that the aircraft landed in the area of an IDF base.

IDF strikes 10 Hezbollah targets in simultaneous attack on Lebanon

IDF fighter jets simultaneously struck approximately 10 Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Rachaya Al Foukhar in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Monday.

The targets included a weapons storage facility, launch posts, and terrorist infrastructure,

IDF raids home of Gan Yavne terrorist, arrests nine across West Bank

IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police operated in the West Bank overnight, during which they raided the home of the terrorist who stabbed three people in Gan Yavne on Sunday night, the IDF stated on Monday.

Over the course of the operations in the West Bank, the Israeli forces arrested nine wanted individuals.

Since October 7, 3,600 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the West Bank, the IDF added. Around 1,600 of this number are associated with Hamas.

Survey shows deterioration of psychological well being of evacuees in Israel

The study population included people forced to evacuate their homes for at least two weeks, with 90% evacuating for over a month..

About 200,000 people were evacuated from the border areas shared with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon because of terrorist attacks against Israel; of these, about 32,000 of them are still being put up in hotels across the country. 

Maccabi Healthcare Services, the second largest health fund , surveyed its members in February to find out how being away from home or having lost their homes completely has affected their well-being.

It found that a third of the evacuees reported a change in their health condition for the worse, and there was a 35% increase in the use of medications to treat depression or anxiety .  About two-thirds of the evacuees testified that their sleep was disturbed, and a third of the parents said that there was a change for the worse in the children’s eating habits. 

About a third of the evacuees reported a change for the worse in their health condition, with 59% perceiving it as moderate or bad today, compared to only 42% before the outbreak of the war. The survey also shows that 76% of the evacuees who had an appointment postponed or gave up on a doctor's appointment or pre-arranged medical examination, and about half testified that they gave up screening tests.

Netanyahu waiting to release hostages as election leverage - brother of kidnapped Israeli

"this is not a protest, it is a struggle. we are fighting to get them back, and we will not remain silent," said danny elgarat, the brother of gaza hostage itzhak elgarat..

The protest for the release of the hostages picked up speed over the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, stormy demonstrations were held in dozens of locations, including the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv and in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem. 

Danny Elgarat , the brother of Itzhak Elgarat, who was taken hostage in the Gaza Strip, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday morning, saying that he is "waiting for the end of the term to return the hostages - as an achievement for the elections."

"This is not a protest, it is a struggle. We are fighting to get them back and will not remain silent. If it does not suit Netanyahu that these are his people, he should get a new country, a new people. What is he waiting for? That we come to Sara and say ‘thank you?’ It's shameful that this is what we deal with."

Later, Elgarat said that Netanyahu "is like the captain of the Titanic, lost at sea and telling us that in a moment he will defeat Hamas." 

He added, "[Netanyahu] wants to release the hostages towards the end of his term, which he will have as an achievement to present in the elections. Everything with him is calculated."

Israel-Hamas war: What you should know

• Hamas launched a massive attack on October 7, with thousands of terrorists infiltrating from the Gaza border and taking some 240 hostages into Gaza
• Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 in the Re'im music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across Gaza border communities
• 134 hostages remain in Gaza, 36 of which killed in captivity, IDF says

Middle East Crisis Airstrike in Damascus Kills Several Top Iranian Commanders, Iran Says

• Share full article
• The site of a strike in Damascus, Syria, that killed a top Iranian commander. Reuters
• Protesters in Tehran after an Israeli strike on an Iranian Embassy complex in Syria. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
• Damaged buildings at Al-Shifa Hospital complex seen in Gaza City during a media tour by the Israeli Army on Sunday. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
• A Palestinian woman sitting amid destruction at Al-Shifa Hospital. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Destruction at Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City. World Health Organization via Reuters
• Israeli police dispersing ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem protesting against mandatory military service. Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock
• Palestinians amid the rubble of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital after two weeks of fighting. Obtained by Reuters
• Scorched beds and medical equipment inside Al-Shifa Hospital. By Reuters
• Aid airdropped over northern Gaza. Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press
• Protesters camping outside the Knesset, the Parliament building, in Jerusalem. Associated Press
• An Israeli soldier at the site of a music festival in Israel where people were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack. Hannah Mckay/Reuters
• The destruction surrounding Al-Shifa Hospital. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

At least seven Iranian officers were killed in the Damascus strike.

At least seven officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East were killed in Damascus on Monday, when Israeli warplanes struck part of the Iranian Embassy complex in the Syrian capital, according to a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The strike killed three generals in Iran’s Quds Force, the external military and intelligence service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and four other officers, the Corps said, making it one of the deadliest attacks of the yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the strike, but four Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, acknowledged that Israel had carried out the attack.

The covert war has previously included Israel’s targeted assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists, and Iran’s use of foreign proxies to strike Israeli interests. Now it is increasingly being fought out in open as tensions between the countries have intensified since Israel and Hamas, an Iranian-backed militia in the Gaza Strip, went to war in October.

The attack in Damascus killed Mohamad Reza Zahedi, 65, a senior commander in the Quds Force. General Zahedi, Iranian officials said, oversaw the Quds Force’s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon.

Also killed in the strike were Gen. Mohammad Hadi Haj Rahimi, a deputy commander of Quds Forces in Lebanon and Syria and second in command to General Zahedi, and Gen. Hossein Aman Allahi, responsible for the Quds Force’s military operations in the region, according to Iranian media and an official statement from the Guards.

“For years, Israel and Iran have been engaged in what’s usually called a ‘shadow war,’” Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, said Monday in a social media post. “Today’s strike underscores the fact that this is increasingly a misnomer, as tensions increase on multiple fronts.”

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Iran was still investigating the scope of the attack but threatened that there would be consequences for Israel. “Iran, in addition to having the right to retaliate in kind,” Mr. Kanaani said, “will decide on how to respond and punish the aggressor.”

Syrian and Iranian state news agencies reported that at least seven people were killed in the strikes on Monday and aired video footage of the ruined building, the remnants of burned cars, shattered glass and debris covering the ground.

The strike, two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said, targeted a secret meeting in which Iranian intelligence officials and Palestinian militants gathered to discuss the war in Gaza. Among them were leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group armed and funded by Iran.

Israel and Iran differed in their descriptions of the building that was hit. Iran described it as part of its diplomatic mission in Syria, but Israel said it was being used by the Revolutionary Guards, making it a legitimate military target.

“This is no consulate and this is no embassy,” the Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told CNN. “This is a military building of Quds Forces disguised as a civilian building in Damascus.”

Mr. Vaez, the analyst, said, “Targeting a diplomatic facility is akin to targeting Iran on its own soil.” Failure to retaliate would undermine Iran’s military presence in Syria, he said, but “If they do respond they would fall into the trap that they think Israel has laid for them to get into a direct war.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, strongly condemned the attack in a statement and said he had spoken to his Syrian counterpart about the “Zionist regime’s attack on the consulate section of the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Damascus.”

Syria’s defense ministry said the strikes happened around 5 p.m. local time when Israeli fighter jets entered Syria from the Golan Heights.

Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said in a statement released to state media that the consulate’s building came under attack by two F-35 fighter jets. Mr. Akbari said among those killed were several Iranian military advisers deployed to Syria.

“This attack will have our fierce response,” he said, according to Iranian media.

The attack rattled supporters of Iran’s government who took to social media to question, once again, how Israel knew of the secret meeting and whether Iran’s security apparatus had been infiltrated by informants.

Peyman Syed Taheri, a conservative analyst close to the government, said in an interview from Tehran that Israel’s attack in Damascus had shaken Iranians who fear that the government’s approach to the standoff with Israel had failed.

“Our national security has been violated. Either Iran must respond so Israel doesn’t attack us in Tehran or if it doesn’t want to respond then it has to rethink and moderate its regional policies and military presence,” Mr. Taheri said.

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of an Iranian Quds Force commander who was reported killed in an airstrike in Damascus, Syria. He was Gen. Mohamad Reza Zahedi, not Zahedani.

How we handle corrections

— Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman

Iran vows a response to the Israeli strike in Damascus.

Iranian leaders said on Tuesday that the Israeli airstrikes on an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, that killed three top Iranian commanders would not go unanswered. Government supporters took to the streets and called for retaliation against Israel.

The strike, on part of the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus, killed three generals in Iran’s Quds Force and four other officers, making it one of the deadliest attacks of the yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran.

In a statement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed that Israel would be “punished by the hands of our brave men.”

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said the attack was an “inhumane assault in brazen violation of international law,” in comments reported by Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency. He added that it would not go unanswered, but gave no details of how Iran might respond.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said in an earlier post on the social media site X that Iran had summoned the Swiss ambassador after midnight local time and asked that an important message be delivered to Washington: that as Israel’s ally, the “U.S. must answer” for Israel’s actions. Switzerland acts as the United States’ representative in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.

The spokesman for the leadership of Iran’s Parliament, Seyyed Nezamoldin Mousavi, told Iranian state media that “an appropriate response is a national request by the people of Iran.”

In Washington, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said that “the United States had no involvement in the strike” and “did not know about it ahead of time.”

A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss private communication, said that the statement had been communicated directly to Iran.

In several cities across Iran, including the capital, Tehran, as well as Tabriz and Isfahan, large crowds gathered waving Palestinian and Iranian flags and demanding revenge. “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” chanted the crowds in Iran, fists in the air, warning that if Mr. Khamenei declared jihad against Israel, then “no army can hold us back.”

The strikes in Damascus on Monday coincided with two major holidays in Iran, a religious Shia holiday commemorating the killing of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad and Shia Islam’s founder; and a national day of nature, celebrated by going outdoors on the 13th day of Norouz, the Iranian New Year.

Some opponents of the government gathered in parks in northern Tehran at night to carry on with the nature celebrations, which include picnics, dancing and singing, until security forces dispersed them, videos on social media and on BBC Persian showed.

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Israel’s attack. Russia, a close ally of Iran, requested the meeting.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in a letter to the world body that the attack on diplomatic buildings was a violation of international law and the U.N. charter, and was a threat to the peace and stability of the region.

It remained unclear what steps Iran would take in response to Israel’s strikes: Whether it would target Israel directly in a military attack, risking a broader war with Israel and the United States, or if it would continue with its strategy of fighting through the militants it supports in the region.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia backed by Iran, said in a statement, according to Iran state media, that “without doubt, this crime will not go without punishment and revenge against the enemy.”

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

— Farnaz Fassihi and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

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The killings of the aid workers drew condemnation from governments around the world.

Israeli strikes on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip that killed seven workers for the charity group World Central Kitchen set off international outrage and prompted an unusual apology from the wartime Israeli government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected almost unequivocally international criticism over his nation’s prosecution of the war against Hamas, said Tuesday night that Israel “deeply regrets the tragic incident.”

“Our hearts go out to their families and to their home countries,” Mr. Netanyahu said of the dead aid workers .

The World Central Kitchen workers were traveling in clearly marked cars when they came under fire. The workers included citizens of the United States, Poland, Australia and three from Britain.

The Israeli military acknowledged it was responsible for the strike on the convoy in a video posted to social media on Wednesday morning, calling it “a grave mistake.” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, said that an independent body would investigate the killings.

World Central Kitchen, which has become an important player in delivering supplies to a territory in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, said on Tuesday it was suspending its operations in the region. A second aid agency, American Near East Refugee Aid, said it too was suspending its operations in Gaza.

In a statement on Tuesday night, President Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the aid workers’ deaths and criticized Israel for not doing enough to protect aid workers and civilians.

“This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult,” he said.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the U.S. government had spoken to the Israeli authorities about the strike and urged a swift and impartial investigation. He offered praise for the aid workers.

“These people are heroes,” Mr. Blinken said. “They run into the fire, not away from it. They show the best of what humanity really has to offer when the going gets tough. They have to be protected.”

And David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, called the killings “completely unacceptable” and said, “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure the safety of aid workers.”

The war in the Gaza Strip has proved exceptionally dangerous for aid workers. At least 196 have been killed there since the fighting began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations, citing a figure from March 20.

World Central Kitchen said in a statement that its team had been hit after unloading food at a warehouse in central Gaza and leaving in two armored cars and another vehicle. The group said the convoy was hit despite having coordinated its movements with the Israeli military.

A spokesman for Israel’s military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said that Israel’s military “has been working closely with the World Central Kitchen to assist them in fulfilling their noble mission of helping bring food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.” The group had come to the aid of Israel after the attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, he said, describing it as being on the “front lines of humanity.”

Graphic video footage that circulated after the strike showed several bodies, some in protective gear with World Central Kitchen patches.

Reporting was contributed by Cassandra Vinograd , Damien Cave , Aric Toler , Anushka Patil , Daniel Victor , Victoria Kim and Natasha Frost .

— Aaron Boxerman ,  Adam Rasgon and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Netanyahu says Israel will shut down Al Jazeera in Israel.

Israeli lawmakers passed a law on Monday allowing the government to temporarily shutter foreign media outlets that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has determined undermine the country’s national security, and the Israeli leader said he would use the new law to block Al Jazeera broadcasts and activities in Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has had a tense relationship with Al Jazeera for years, but the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 escalated tensions. Mr. Netanyahu has called Al Jazeera a “Hamas mouthpiece.”

On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said it was time for the Qatar-based network, one of the most widely viewed sources of television news in the Arab world, to stop broadcasting in Israel, although he did not specify when that would happen.

“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on X , while recovering from hernia surgery.

Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s comments “lies that incite against the safety of our journalists around the world.”

“The network stresses that this latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera,” it said in a statement, adding that the new law would not “deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage.”

Under the new law, if the prime minister deems a foreign media outlet to “concretely undermine” Israel’s national security, the government can temporarily close its offices, confiscate its equipment, remove it from Israeli cable and satellite television providers and block access to any of the channel’s online platforms hosted on servers in Israel or owned by Israeli entities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists , an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedoms around the world, criticized the new law, saying that it “contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.”

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about the law during a news briefing in Washington, said that “a move like this is concerning.”

“We believe in the freedom of the press,” she said. “It is critical.”

The new law comes at a critical time in Israel’s relations with Qatar, which has been hosting cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The Qatari government, which helps fund Al Jazeera, did not immediately comment.

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.

— Johnatan Reiss

Israeli troops pull out of a major Gaza hospital after a two-week battle.

Israeli soldiers withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after two weeks of fighting in which they killed around 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others, the Israeli military said on Monday. The troops left widespread devastation in their wake after extended gun battles with Palestinian militants in and around the complex.

Taysir al-Tanna, a longtime vascular surgeon at Al-Shifa, said many of the hospital’s main buildings — including the emergency, obstetrics and surgical wards — had been badly damaged in the fighting, and the main gate had been smashed.

“Now it looks like a wasteland,” Dr. al-Tanna said.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said bodies were scattered in and around the complex. The final death toll remained unclear, he said, as some corpses were either under the rubble of destroyed buildings or were believed to have been buried.

“Even outside the complex itself, there are blocks of buildings that were knocked to the ground,” and people were searching for the occupants in the rubble, Mr. Basal said.

The Israeli military said the roughly 200 Palestinians it killed were militants, and that its soldiers had arrested around 900 people it suspected of being militants at the Shifa complex over the past two weeks, including senior commanders in groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It said two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in the raid.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, blamed the destruction on the militants, saying they had fortified themselves inside hospital wards, fired on soldiers and refused calls to surrender. “We had to fire on the buildings in order to stop that and to kill the terrorists,” he said.

Israeli forces evacuated displaced civilians sheltering in the compound as well as some patients, and placed other patients in a building away from the fighting, Admiral Hagari said. The World Health Organization said on Sunday that at least 21 patients had died since the Israeli raid began in mid-March, though their causes of death were unclear. By this weekend, just 107 patients remained — 30 of them bedridden — without drinking water and with only minimal medication, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement.

Israeli forces first raided Al-Shifa in November, maintaining that Hamas militants had built a command center in tunnels underneath it. Hamas and the hospital director insisted the facility was solely a refuge for civilians.

The Israeli military later publicized some evidence to support its case, including by showing reporters a fortified tunnel constructed underneath the hospital grounds. An investigation by The New York Times suggested that Hamas had used the site for cover and stored weapons there. Critics argue that Israel failed to substantiate its original claims about Al-Shifa’s military value.

After little more than a week, Israeli troops withdrew in compliance with a brief cease-fire. But as the war ground on, Israeli forces closed in on the hospital again in mid-March in an attempt to root out what they said was a renewed insurgency by Palestinian armed groups in northern Gaza.

“Hamas and Islamic Jihad have started to rebuild themselves in the north,” said Admiral Hagari. “And they re-based themselves inside Shifa.”

Hamas has not commented on the new allegations that it was using the hospital as a base, but in a statement it accused the Israeli military of summarily executing Palestinians inside. The group’s armed wing has repeatedly said that its militants were fighting with the Israeli military around Al-Shifa over the past two weeks.

Hamas called the destruction at the hospital “a horrific crime” that Israel had perpetrated “with full and unlimited support from the administration of U.S. President Biden.”

Before the first Israeli incursion, Israel gave the hospital more than a week’s notice ahead of its forces entering the complex, giving militants hiding there an opportunity to flee, Admiral Hagari said. This time, Israeli soldiers launched a surprise attack, raiding the area in the middle of the night, he added.

In a visit to Al-Shifa on Saturday, Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, declared the raid “extremely successful.” Lt. Gen. Halevi said the operation had let militant groups know that “a hospital is not a safe place” for them.

Asked about the destruction at Al-Shifa, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said the Biden administration was concerned over Hamas’s repeated activity within hospitals, as well as “how Hamas appears, how they appear to have been able to reconstitute in a hospital so quickly.”

“This just points to how challenging Israel’s military operation is, because Hamas has intentionally embedded themselves into civilian infrastructure, into these hospitals,” Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters.

— Aaron Boxerman and Iyad Abuheweila

‘A horror movie’: One man describes the aftermath of Israel’s raid on Al-Shifa.

Decomposing bodies. Mountains of rubble. Burned buildings. One man described what he found upon returning to Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli soldiers ended a two-week raid at the Gaza Strip’s largest medical complex.

“As soon as you approach Al-Shifa Hospital, you’re hit with the stench of decomposing bodies,” said Osama al-Ashi, who went to the area to check on his apartment after he heard that the Israeli military had withdrawn. He added in a phone call, “The whole time we were walking, we were stepping on body parts.”

Mr. al-Ashi said that many of the bodies were those of people who had been shot during the raid and left where they fell. Others, he said, were dug up when Israeli forces bulldozed temporary cemeteries inside the hospital grounds.

“The scenes there were difficult to tolerate as a human being,” he said. “You feel like you are in a horror movie.”

He said that the hospital’s buildings remained standing but were completely charred, turning Gaza’s largest hospital into “skeletons of buildings rendered completely useless.” Mr. al-Ashi added that at the hospital, “The medical equipment, the beds, the administrative buildings — everywhere, everything is burned.”

Many buildings around the hospital had been destroyed by bombs, missiles and tank shells. “It’s very rare to find a house still standing,” he said.

Mr. al-Ashi and his family lived less than a mile from the hospital and fled their apartment on the eighth day of Israel’s assault. When he arrived to check his apartment on Monday, he said, it was “unlivable” because the water and electricity lines had been destroyed and its doors and windows shattered.

Instead of moving back in, as he had hoped, Mr. al-Ashi and his family packed up as many of their belongings as they could and returned to the apartment they fled to last week.

Mr. al-Ashi’s testimony echoes what was reported by Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency.

Fadi Afanah, the head of ambulance services at the hospital, was not there during the raid but went back after Israeli forces withdrew to help treat the patients and the injured. “Hundreds of the injured are suffering disastrous conditions,” he said. “Wounds of so many cases are beyond treatment due to gangrene now.”

But treating them at the hospital seemed impossible. “They left nothing. No single ambulance nor one facility survived, except the human resources department,” Mr. Afanah said.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

— Hiba Yazbek and Abu Bakr Bashir

At a tent camp outside Israel’s Parliament, protesters explain why Netanyahu must go.

Hundreds of small silver tents were clustered on the pavement outside Israel’s Parliament in Jerusalem on Monday, stretching at least a city block. Many had Israeli flags taped to their roofs, along with stickers bearing slogans. “There is no greater mitzvah than the redemption of captives,” reads one. Another is more to the point, saying simply: “ELECTIONS.”

The tents are temporary homes for some of the thousands of Israelis who began a four-day protest on Sunday night calling for early elections to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Many of them believe he has put his political survival ahead of the broader interests of the Israeli people.

Another night of protest was not long off, and the encamped demonstrators were resting and preparing. Some dozed in tents or relaxed in the shade of trees.

When asked why he had camped out overnight, Haggai Schwartz, 47, said there were “too many issues” with the current Israeli government. And the events of Oct. 7 — a date emblazoned on his black T-shirt, above a large drop of blood — made the need for change all the more urgent, he said.

“The government of Israel’s first responsibility is for the security of its citizens,” he said. “And they failed — completely failed.”

Mr. Schwartz said he wanted the government to take responsibility for those failures. “So far they don’t,” he said. “So we call for elections.”

Ronen Raz, 66, said he was tired of protests — “but there’s no other choice.”

Sitting in the shade at a bus stop next to an empty coffee cup, Mr. Raz said he had been protesting against the government since 2020 and would stay through this protest — “or until Bibi falls down.”

Sunday night’s protest was one of the largest since the start of the war, but appeared smaller than the demonstrations at the peak of a wave of anti-government demonstrations last year, a wave that Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition survived.

On Monday afternoon, Lee Nevo, 45, crouched with a paintbrush over a long white banner spread on the ground. Bubble letters spelled out “IMAGINING PEACE” in Hebrew, and she was filling in a letter with purple paint. She said she was inspired by the crowds on Sunday night.

“It gives us hope that something is going to change actually,” Ms. Nevo said.

The first thing that needs to change, she said, is the government — and Oct. 7 made clear that this could not wait. Behind her, posters with the names and photos of hostages held in Gaza hung along the metal fence: Arbel Yehoud, 28; Karina Ariev, 19; Dror Or, 48; Yoram Metzger, 80. “We have to bring them back,” she said.

“Out there nobody cares about the hostages,” Ms. Nevo added, gesturing to the Knesset, the Parliament building, behind her. “The only thing they care about is staying in the government.”

Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated a slogan seen in Jerusalem. It read, “There is no greater mitzvah than the redemption of captives,” not “the reception of captives.”

— Cassandra Vinograd Reporting from Jerusalem

Pressure is building on Netanyahu from all sides.

As the war between Israel and Hamas approaches the six-month mark, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is confronting rising pressure on multiple fronts, at home and abroad.

He has encountered resistance from protesters, relatives of hostages held by militants in Gaza, the international community, and elements of his own governing coalition, as criticism mounts over his prosecution of the war against Hamas.

“He’s facing a pile-on,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political scientist based in Tel Aviv. “But he's responding with maximum possible defiance and minimum possible decision-making.”

Although many Israelis have refrained from protesting against the government during the war, thousands of Israelis on Sunday thronged streets in Jerusalem beside the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, to call for early elections, in one of the most significant demonstrations against Mr. Netanyahu’s government since the war began in October.

Mr. Netanyahu has managed to serve longer than any prime minister in Israel’s history in part because of his political savvy. But his popularity was already in decline before the war, over a judicial overhaul that prompted some of the biggest protests in Israel’s history. It suffered another heavy blow when the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas revealed serious security failings.

He has fired back at people calling for elections, arguing they would paralyze the country for at least six months and prevent it from achieving its aims in the war, which he has said includes a “complete victory” over Hamas.

In recent weeks, some relatives of hostages have expressed dismay at Mr. Netanyahu’s handling of indirect negotiations with Hamas aimed at achieving the release their loved ones and a cease-fire. The prime minister, they so, is so determined to pursue the destruction of Hamas that he might do it at the expense of the hostages.

“You are torpedoing the deal,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage, told a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday. “You failed on Oct. 7 and you are failing today.”

As if to underline his troubles, Mr. Netanyahu was hospitalized on Sunday to undergo hernia surgery.

He has said that Hamas was sticking to unrealistic demands, and that those who think he hasn’t been doing enough to secure the release of the hostages were wrong.

Mr. Netanyahu has also faced pushback abroad over his policies, especially those that have led to the enormous civilian death toll and destruction.

In February, President Biden called Israel’s military operations “over the top” and said the suffering of innocent civilians has “got to stop.” Several world leaders have also warned Israel against a planned ground offensive into Rafah, the southern Gaza city where most of the enclave’s population has sought refuge, and the Biden administration has said a major operation there would be a mistake.

The U.S. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in the United States, went further than any senior American leader in publicly rebuking Mr. Netanyahu, delivering a scathing speech in mid-March that accused him of letting his political survival supersede “the best interests of Israel” and of being “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza.”

Within his government, Mr. Netanyahu has been dealing with divisions over whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should retain their longstanding exemption from military service.

An unwieldy right-wing alliance of secular and ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, the coalition’s members are divided about whether the state should continue to allow young ultra-Orthodox men to study at religious seminaries instead of serving in the military, as most other Jewish Israelis do.

If the government abolishes the exemption, it risks a walkout from the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers; if it lets the exemption stand, the secular members could withdraw. Either way, the coalition could collapse, forcing elections.

Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting to this article.

— Adam Rasgon

A major issue in cease-fire talks: How can people displaced from northern Gaza go back?

For months, Israel and Hamas have been at odds over a host of issues during talks aimed at brokering a truce, including whether Israeli troops would withdraw and the length of a cease-fire.

Now one of the major sticking points to emerge as in-person talks resumed this week is how displaced Palestinians will be able to return to the northern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli, Hamas and regional officials.

Despite mounting international pressure, the talks aimed at brokering a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza appear to be stalled.

Mediators from Qatar and Egypt have been meeting with Israeli officials and separately with Hamas leaders, trying to find a formula the warring parties can live with. The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally and largest supplier of weapons, has also been involved. On Saturday, Israeli negotiators traveled to Cairo for another round of talks.

As the war nears the end of its sixth month, humanitarian officials have said a cease-fire is urgently needed to allow more aid into the devastated enclave and stave off a looming famine, and the relatives of hostages have become increasingly worried about the fate of their loved ones in captivity.

American officials say that they are also hoping the warring sides reach an agreement soon, and that any temporary cease-fire reached to allow the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners might be extended into a longer-lasting peace.

But what to do about displaced people returning to Gaza City and other northern communities has become a key issue. Hundreds of thousands of people from northern Gaza have been sheltering in crowded schools, tent encampments and relatives’ homes for months, facing severe hunger, poor sanitation and dangerous diseases.

Hamas has been demanding that Palestinians be permitted to return to the north without restrictions, according to Israeli and Hamas officials and two regional officials familiar with the talks. Israel, however, has demanded that it supervise the process, limiting who can return and where they can go.

One Israeli official said Israel was seeking to bar Hamas operatives and “fighting-age men” from returning to the north, where the Israeli military is still trying to defeat pockets of Palestinian fighters. In addition, Israel wants the returnees to be limited to specific areas, the official added, without identifying them.

The Israeli official and the two regional officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations.

In an interview, the Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, said that Israel was only willing to agree to let Palestinians return to the north under “strict conditions and a few at a time.”

The Israeli army has set up checkpoints on routes from central Gaza into the north and currently is letting only some people pass. Those who have been allowed to cross include truck drivers with aid convoys and technicians repairing phone networks.

Israel’s military campaign has turned large areas in the north into islands of rubble. If Palestinians were to return en masse, many would likely need housing, at least in the short term.

On Sunday, the Israeli war cabinet met to discuss the issue. It was not immediately clear if Israel had shifted its position after the meeting.

While mediators have struggled to bridge differences between the two sides on letting Palestinians return to the north, they have made some progress in persuading Hamas to reduce the number of prisoners it wants Israel to release in exchange for hostages, the two regional officials said.

They said Hamas had softened its previous position on the ratio of hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli official also said the two sides had not agreed on the question of who will choose the prisoners to be released.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting to this article.

— Adam Rasgon and Edward Wong reporting from Jerusalem and Washington