1.

Answer the following questions briefly:The American War of Independence was the first organized political revolution in the history of the world. In this context answer the following questions: (a) How was an American colony governed? Why were the colonists resentful? (b) How did the American colonists differ from the British? (c) Why did the American colonists refuse to pay taxes imposed by the British Parliament in London? Give an account of the Boston Tea Party incident.

Answer»

 (a) Each American colony had its own Assembly elected by the people of the colony but the governor of the colony was appointed by the British government. The Governor was not responsible to the Assembly. He governed the colony in the interest of England, the mother country, and not the colonists. This cuased great resentment among the American settlers who worked very hard but could not enjoy the fruits of their labour. 

(b) Socially and culturally, the American colonists were different from the British. The colonist were simple and liberal, unlike the British puritans who were rigid and conservative. The American colonists had a distinct identity i.e an American identity that aspired for freedom to grow and develop as a separate independent nation. 

(c) The American colonists refused to pay taxes as they argued that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonists since they had no representatives in the Parliament.In 1773, a group of colonists, disguised as Red Indians, raided British ships in Boston harbour and threw 340 crates of tea into the sea. This incident was a protest against the new taxes including a tax on tea, imposed on the colonies.The importance of this act was that it was an act of open defiance of the colonists against British authority.



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