Essay done for American History class...11th grade.
Despite the fact that essentially the colonists were British, the culture of colonial America had had enough time to seed itself in the ground and develop as a new entity apart from its motherland. Due to this secession, new political ideas and practices had arisen in colonial American that were separate and at times could be very disparagingly conflicting with Britain’s deep- rooted hegemonic monarchial and parliamentary customs. Despite this however, this two separate ideological governments did have one thing in common, they both were egoistical societies. Neither society had any sense of altruism; their primary motive was to do what was best for their own benefit regardless of how it would affect the other government.
During the time of the American Enlightenment, new ideas had begun to form, thus changing the ideas of the colonists as well. With these new ideas, colonists now had begun to think in a different and new manner, one that was no longer bared much resemblance to the British mode of thought. Because of this change in the colonial political ideas a rift began to emerge between the American colonies and Great Britain, which would only broaden as time elapsed, ultimately resulting in the American Revolution. Various issues would arise that would put the two countries at end, but most that contributed to the political quarrels between the two were related to the exaggerated taxation laws placed on the American colonial citizens.
These sundry taxation laws that were put into place only added to the insolent behavior that the colonists would begin towards its land of origin. Such taxation acts as the Stamp Act of 1765, which stated that revenue stamps be placed on all legal documents for defense and security of the colonies, and the Quartering Acts, which stated that all colonial citizens were required to house British soldiers and feed them as needed, only led to more agitation and more instigation of conflict on the side of the colonials.
Such taxing procedures on the colonials merely led the colonials to begin more irritated with the British system and aided in shaping the political view of the budding country. The primary political view these various taxation acts helped to form was its independency and fair exchange of power, which is simplified in the notable colonial dogma “No taxation without representation”. This is so because this simple doctrine shows the belief, which is still held in America’s present political system, that if one can not have full authority of one’s own actions then he must have an equal say in what he is a component of.
Despite the differences amid the colonies and Great Britain, both fundamentally had the same goal in mind. Both essentially wanted what would be most advantageous to each one. Britain, for example, wanted to tax the colonies as much as they could as to further their revenue and still not have to allow them a say in the British parliament. On the other side of the spectrum, however, the colonists did not want this; it was weighing them down with the various expense taxes that were not necessary to have placed on them. Because of this deciding factor, the colonials began to tire of the old British political regimen and thus began to base their own political system on different values, hence dividing the British and the colonials further more.
Despite the various differences that both places possessed there were continually linked by one simple similarity that was powered by human nature, their own self- interest. Because of this one similarity, differences consequently emerged, ones that would ultimately fuel a conflict, that would eventually become a war, and would eventually led to the creation of a new and permanent country, one that would in due time take the place of the hegemonic rule of Great Britain, and become greater in power than the land, which had created itself.