Was the American Revolution Primarily a Struggle for Power?

Essay by Muskateer06High School, 11th gradeA+, December 2004

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James Otis stated his belief that "the world would always be divided between those who were discontent because they didn't have enough power, and those who felt they did." The British knew that if they lost the war they would rapidly decline from the most powerful nation, to one that was weak. They fought to retain their power. The British' motives for fighting ties into James Otis's belief because although the British were content with their power then, they knew if they lost it they would become discontent. The American Revolution was fought for one reason: both the colonists and the British were prepared to do anything just so that they might have complete power over the United States.

In 1766, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act. This stated that Parliament had full power over the colonies. The Declaratory Act was just one of the many Parliament-formed acts that upset the colonists.

As Thomas Paine stated in his pamphlet Common Sense, the colonists felt that independence was the power to determine their own fate; the colonists' showed their displeasure regarding Parliament's acts in such a way that the King of England might realize that they were not fighting for political or social reasons, but rather the colonists wanted the power to make decisions for themselves.

The First Continental Congress met for the first time in September 1774. The colonists' result of Parliament's Intolerable Acts, the Congress tried to find someway to establish limits over Parliament's power. Later on, the Peace of Paris was made to end all of the French's power in the Americas. Both the Continental Congress and the Intolerable Acts were different ways to gain power: the Congress helped the colonists while the Intolerable Acts aided the British.

On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson drafted a document to...