With their being so many causes of the American Revolution, four of them discrete from the rest because of them hitting the colonialist the hardest, causing them to want to revolt and rebel against these measures. These four main reasons, listed from most significant to least, are parliamentary taxation, British military measures, restriction of civil liberties, and the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas. These four factors prompted the Americans to rebel in 1776, letting them separate themselves from England and no longer being called colonist.
Ranking first among these factors was the British parliamentary taxation. These plagues of taxes which were laid upon the colonies had angered them greatly, causing them to rebel and act against the acts of taxation. First to come was the Sugar Act, passed in 1764 by parliament; it was the first tax to be passed. It had the colonies pay a tax on important items that came from the West Indies. Second to come was the Stamp Act, which had stirred the colonies quite a bit of them having required putting a stamp on marriage licenses, paper, newspaper, pamphlets, and shipping items. The tax was half a penny but it added up, and so did the anger and tensions. This had led to the Stamp Act Congress, which proposed that the colonists would no longer purchase manufactured goods from the British to further support the British economy while their own was being destroyed by taxes. The Stamp Act had further led the colonist to hate the British, after the Stamp Act Congress, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty had arisen. A violent group which had led protest and rebelled against the British, many of these rebellions involved in Stamp burning, the confiscation of money, and hanging effigy dolls on poles which represented members of the British Parliament. With these waves of taxes being passed upon by the British, it had only added ingredients to the pot of hate toward the British, which was already overflowing, giving more reason for the colonist to not support being colonist anymore but being separated from Britain.
