Question

What justifications did American revolutionaries have for declaring independence from Great Britain?

Answer 1

The old "taxation without representation" argument said it all. Colonists were tired of having things like taxes passed onto them in Parliament all the way out in England without any representation. It was as if they were being treated like second class citizens who had no say in their own rights within the colonies. But instead of listening to its citizens, England decided to clamp down even further on the colonies, sparking even more grievances.

Answer 2

The war was the result of the political American Revolution. Colonists galvanized around the position that the Stamp Act of 1765, imposed by Parliament of Great Britain, was unconstitutional. The British Parliament insisted it had the right to tax colonists. The colonists claimed that, as they were British subjects, taxation without representation was illegal. The American colonists formed a unifying Continental Congress and a shadow government in each colony, though at first remaining loyal to the king. The American boycott of taxed British tea led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when shiploads of tea were destroyed. London responded by ending self-government in Massachusetts and putting it under the control of the British army with General Thomas Gage as governor.