From Discord to Disunion, Essay Example

This text talks about the invasion of the British government into America, Boston in Particular. This was brought about by the need to salvage British East India Company that was already bankrupt. What followed is a tea act to withdraw duties on any tea imported and exported from Britain. However, the American colony was not pleased with this action and this led to an uprising against the British. After continued conflicts between the American congress and England’s king, there was need to free Boston. Therefore a committee was organized to come up with a declaration to show Boston was a free state. However, the need to come up with this draft was triggered by Thomas Paine in his pamphlet of Common Sense. And for sure, Boston finally became free of the wimps by England’s king. The British East India Company had maintained its position as a trade monopoly between India and the British Empire for a period close to 175 years. The Company had grown overnight into a well reputable firm that was widely recognized in the entire region of Britain and India. However, during the 1770s, the company experienced a strong wave of bankruptcy. To add more salt to the injury, the English market was apparently loaded with tea despite the fact that the company had 17 million pounds of Indian tea in its warehouses. There was need to save this company before it ran out of existence. A remarkable plan was devised by Lord North who thought that it would be wise if all duties would be exempted from all tea brought into and out of England. This subsequently led to the proposal of the tea act in 1773 and low cost on East India Company’s tea. The cost was lower than that of the Dutch tea which was widely used in the entire region of America. The colonists (Americans) in particular were not pleased with this plan as they thought that they were being deprived the freedom of choice. The reason to this was that the colonists were afraid that Parliament would also eliminate other colonial wholesalers. In addition, the East India Company allowed only those merchants who had opposed the barrier against English goods to act as its representatives in America. There was another cause for worry, there was a strong perception that the tea act would also allow England to set up other monopolies that would be in favor of those who remained loyal to the East India Company. The Americans went further and demonstrated their opposition against the tea act in several ways. One, tea was retained in the warehouses in Charleston whereas in New York and Philadelphia, tea was not unloaded in the first place. The East India Company Agents were treated badly in all American ports. In Boston, the tea act was ignored and the governor went ahead and imposed duties on tea. The situation in Boston elevated the magnitude of tension and conflict between the British and the Americans as a whole. This conflict is what actually led to the Boston massacre with the intolerable acts in place. Those siding with the England attacked Bunker and Breed Hills in Charles town, after which they would seize Boston. However, the congress was ready to fight back against its enemies. Thus, they sent an Olive Branch petition asking for pardon against which they would be forced to take up artillery as a defense mechanism.

A committee was also organized secretly in correspondence to the issue and solicited for support form its allies. However, after the Continental Association Congress had succeeded in all these, he failed to declare liberty upon America. Later, he came to learn that George III had not declined to attack. In 1776, Thomas Paine documented a certain pamphlet with the name “Common sense”. This pamphlet became an eye opener for the Americans as it rebelled against George III who ran the corrupt British society and now he had extended this vice to Boston. Paine referred to George III as a royal brute. This wake up call for the Bostonians led the Continental Congress to take up a quick action against the king. A committee was formed in the same year on June so that it would lay down a justifiable document to show that America was an independent continent. After this document was read publicly to the people, they went on a rampage and brought the king’s (George III) coat of arms, which had been put up on the door of statehouse, down. This declaration of Bostonian’s liberty consisted of two parts; the first and which was the most imperative declared the Boston’s right to act against a form of government that deprived them of their natural rights. The second was a statement of the crimes against the king that he had carried out against Boston. With that, Boston was now free of control from the British king. The theme of discord to disunion was achieved when disagreements between the Bostonians and the British grew into disunity when the Bostonians finally declared their freedom. The disagreements arose when the British governor decided to remove all duties on tea. This brought about a lot of disagreements within the American fraternity and which consequently led to disunion between the American and the British.