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Why Did The Colonists Fight For Independence

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On August 2nd 1776, fifty-six delegates signed a declaration to the Crown of England stating their intent of succeeding from the suppression of British authority and to form their own independent nation. This document is subsequently addressed to countries like Spain and France- “the Powers of the earth,”- to persuade them and to gain support in the thirteen colonies’ case for a fight for independence by providing examples of violations and to inform them that the tensions originated with the colonists’ stripping of rights and was not pursued by the idea of taxation alone. Before mentioning the grievances on which the colonist based their claim, the preamble dictates the colonists’ reasoning to a “revolution.” They believed that God has granted the people “unalienable Rights” -Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness- and it is the role of the government to secure these rights. However, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations [the “abuses” from England]…it is their [the colonists] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards [a new government] for their future security [of “unalienable rights”]. The grievances of the colonists listed is to persuade as to why the American people fought in the revolution and wrote to the King of England declaring their independence for a necessity to secure their rights: right to fair trial; right to representation; right to taxation with

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