The period of time from the 17th century to the 18th century is vital to American History. During this time, the British colonies, which would become the United States, were developing their own unique societies and governments which would set the precedent for modern times. Also, during this time period, the British were responsible in part for the American Revolution, which led to complete American independence from England. The American Revolution was caused by the loss of economic freedom, the actions of dedicated colonists, and numerous taxes against the colonists. .
To begin, the American Revolution began as a result of mercantilism. Mercantilism is the theory that a country's strength and prosperity depended on its gold and silver reserves, which were created by possessing a favorable balance of trade. During the 1760's, England began to apply the mercantile theory to its colonies on order to gain strength and prosperity. They did this by creating laws called the Navigation Acts, which restricted the colonies from trading with any country other than England. They enforced this by further restricting the colonists by making it mandatory that all exports were to leave on British ships, which would then return to England. This severely hurt the colonial trade because more often than not, they would be given unfair, low prices for the goods they exported. The colonists were also hurt because they could only pay the English in gold or silver, which quickly ran out, thus forcing the colonists to barter. Forced to grow certain crops no grown in England, like tobacco, sugar, and rice, the colonists were hurt economically because they could have earned much more by selling the crop to other countries, but they were unable to because of the Navigation Acts. Hindering the colonists even more was the falling price of tobacco. Because they could not even afford the bare necessities to survive, some colonists in Virginia got deep into debt since they had to mortgage their future crops.
