¶ … prompting Americans to rebel in 1776: Parliamentary taxation, restriction of civil liberties, British military measures, and the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas. Americans rebelled against British rule for a number of reasons, and some were more important than others were. These were four of the main reasons the Americans finally had enough of British rule, and they became the basis of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Almost everyone knows the phrase "taxation without representation" and what it means in U.S. history. Many people believe that high taxes were the main reason that Americans finally rebelled against the British. Taxes were an important reason, as historian Robert Hole notes, "Over the next 12 years, time and again the British tried to tax the Americans, and time and again the Americans refused to pay. The British tried a variety of means, by law and by force, to try to make the Americans obey" (Hole 38). The British Parliament tried to tax the Americans to help pay for many wars the English had fought against France. They felt that since the wars eventually helped protect Americans, they should help pay for them. The Americans thought otherwise, and consistently refused to pay higher taxes. However, taxation was not the main reason Americans stood up against the British.

Perhaps the biggest reason Americans wanted their freedom was that they had gotten used to it. Britain did not rule Americans with a heavy hand,...

Americans got used to governing themselves and they did not want to give up that independence when Britain tried to govern them more heavily. Historian Sydney George Fisher notes, "in 1763, the English Government at once began to regulate the American provinces, and reduce them to what she naturally considered a more orderly and colonial condition" (Fisher 2). In addition, he writes, "But this change was regarded by a large part of our people as an infringement of long-established rights, and it brought about the outbreak, which began with ten years of argument" (Fisher 2). Thus, it was civil rights and liberties that Americans had gotten very used to that initially touched off their desire for independence. It is easy to see what set off the Americans, because they were used to self-government and little interference from Great Britain. Fisher continues, "No modern English colonies, not even Canada and the Australian provinces, have quite as much freedom as Connecticut and Rhode Island enjoyed all through our colonial period. They elected their own legislatures and governors, and did not even have to send their laws to England for approval" (Fisher 2). When the British wanted to reduce these rights, Americans were not happy. The British just added to American unrest by regulating civil liberties, sending troops to the area, and creating additional taxation.
After the British defeated the French in several wars, they turned their…