On November 2, 2010, in the midterm elections for both houses of the United States Parliament, the Tea Party, which had just emerged a year earlier, won two seats in the Bundesrat in one fell swoop, disrupting the traditional political landscape of United States and adding uncertainty to the future policy direction. This has aroused the interest and attention of observers in the Tea Party.
This political party, which has a Zen flavor in the Middle and Chinese contexts, has political connotations in the United States context, it is a symbol of dignity and resistance, and if you trace its history, it is still the fuse that eventually led to the United States Revolution, the War of Independence.
On the night of December 16, 1773, in the port of Boston City, Massachusetts, a United Kingdom North American colony, a group of Boston "Sons of Liberty" members disguised as Indians infiltrated three merchant ships of the United Kingdom East India Company anchored at anchorage, and threw all the more than 300 boxes of tea loaded into the sea. The East India company's losses amounted to more than £90,000. This is the famous "Boston Tea Party" in United States history.
Destroying tea was a serious crime, but the vast majority of Boston approved of the act, and a large crowd gathered in the harbor to cheer them on. These rebels against the suzerainty's taxation of tea in the colonies were known as the Tea Party.
When news of the Tea Party reached London, the United Kingdom was furious, clamoring for Boston to be razed with artillery. Almost everyone, even Edmund ·, a member of the House of Commons who claimed to be a friend of the American colonies, agreed to teach the colonists a lesson. King George III said, "We will either be its masters or we will leave it to its own devices." ”
United Kingdom's retaliation and colonial revolt eventually led to the beginning of the Revolution of Independence. But to know the details, we have to start with the history and development of the Americas......
The land that was muddled up, the children who grew up freely
In 1492, Christopher · Columbus, an Italy navigator sponsored by the Spain crown, led three sailing ships from east to west for more than 3,000 miles in the vast Atlantic, and 33 days later, the crew saw a column of white light under the moon on the mast of the sailing ship, and although he thought it was the India he was looking for, his voyage opened up Western Europeans' awareness of the American continent, which is more than a quarter of the world's land area, and the ensuing development activities.
Over the next 100 years, a large number of colonists from various European countries settled on the Atlantic coast. By 1600, about 240,000 Spaniards had entered the Americas, and Spain founded New Spain. The France founded New France in North America. In 1607, United Kingdom founded the city of Jamestown, the first permanent colony United Kingdom established in North America. Since the middle of the 17th century, with the development of capitalism and the deepening of the Reformation, more and more United Kingdom have come to the Americas, and by the middle of the 18th century, 13 independent British colonies have been formed.
Most of the migrants in Europe are not organized by the state, but largely leave their homes in search of greater economic opportunities. This motivation is strengthened by the yearning for religious freedom and the determination to escape political oppression. In particular, the economic crisis that swept through United Kingdom in 1620 caused many low-class poor people to cross the ocean to the "New World" of the Americas in search of new opportunities in order to make a living.
In 1620, a group of United Kingdom Puritans arrived in North America by ship, which became known as the Mayflower, which was talked about by later historians. They were ostracized and persecuted for advocating the Reformation, and were forced to move to the Americas.
Before the landing, they drew up a common "Mayflower" Convention, which consisted of: organizing citizens' groups; Prepare just laws, decrees, rules and regulations. Thus, at the very beginning of the formation of United States history, there was the belief that a society should be governed by a set of rules laid down by its members as the basis for its relations with each other. And "government comes from the social contract between people".
The United Kingdom colonization of North America was nearly a century later than Spain, or even France and Netherlands, and it was only in 1603 after the death of Elizabeth I that United Kingdom began to establish colonies in the Americas on a large scale, and even then, the organizational force for colonization was mainly driven by commercial capital rather than royal power.
But formally, these joint stock companies were approved by the king upon application. Between 1606 and 1622, the London Company invested more than £160,000 in Virginia, the first land occupied and named by the United Kingdom in North America (in honor of Queen Elizabeth of the Virgin), and sent more than 6,000 immigrants.
In order to maintain order in the colonies, the merchants appointed one of the colonists as a governor, and secondly, they instituted policies to make it easier for the colonists to obtain land. By 1619, the framework for a self-government was in its infancy: a House of Commons, composed of elected representatives from the various regions, met in Jamestown to advise the Governor on local matters. Although the corporation was not restricted by these parliamentarians, the representative system of government began to expand, and the later United States model was formed.
The Joint-Stock Company's plan for colonization did not materialize, and the colonists' morale plummeted under the double blow of harsh conditions and constant bloody wars with the Indians. In 1624, the charter of the company was annulled by James I, and Virginia became a royal colony.
Convening of the Virginia Legislature
The formation and development of Jamestown and later Virginia is a microcosm of the formation of various United Kingdom colonies in North America. Over the next 100 years, these new colonists, either voluntarily or by corporations, began their arduous pioneering activities in the vast New World, with a belief in prosperity and perseverance. They brought in farm animals and seeds from their home countries, and they also learned to grow corn and tobacco from the Indians. Of course, they also had numerous conflicts and bloody wars with the Native Americans, Indians, over land and wealth. In order to solve the problem of shortage of manpower for plantations, slaves were also purchased from Africa on a large scale.
Although the power of the colonists came from charters granted by the United Kingdom royal family or parliament, apart from occasional intervention by investors and London officials, the colonists largely managed themselves and focused only on purely local affairs. The colonizers transplanted political and legal systems from their home countries, and while developing the economy, social causes such as education were equally valued.
In 1636, the Massachusetts Parliament allocated £400 to establish "a school or a college", which was initially designed to train Puritan priests, and eventually grew into the famous Harvard University thanks to an 800 pound and a library left by a young Mr. John ·; In 1701, another school named after patron Elisius · Yale was founded, which later became Yale University.
John · Harvard
Elisius · Yale
However, in the early colonial phase, the colony's dependence on United Kingdom was still very evident, and no one disputed United Kingdom's sovereignty. The colony's foreign affairs were under the complete control of London, and its domestic policy was directed by the royal family's representatives in the United States. Prior to the 18th century, the governors of all but two colonies were officially appointed by the United Kingdom. The governors of the royal colonies were chosen by the British king, and the three lands including Pennsylvania were decided by the owners.
The powers of the Governor General were similar to those of the King of United Kingdom. They must enforce local laws, have the power to appoint many petty officials, have the power to convene or dissolve parliament, have the power to propose legislation to parliament, etc. They also had the power to veto bills passed by the Parliament, and like the British Crown, in most colonies the Governor remained financially dependent on his "subjects".
Each colony also had its own parliament, which consisted of an upper and lower chamber with the exception of Pennsylvania. The members of the House of Lords are appointed by the Crown. Judges are also appointed by the Crown and may serve for life if they wish. Members of the House of Commons are elected and have a wide range of powers, including control over finances.
In almost every colony, the House of Commons dominated. Its importance derives, on the one hand, from its financial powers, including the power to set salaries for the Governor, and on the other hand, from the powerful backing of public opinion. Most MPs regard the House of Commons as a microcosm of the House of Commons of United Kingdom, gradually encroaching on the power of the United Kingdom royal family.
Within the United Kingdom Government, the King's Privy Council had the responsibility to set colonial policy and acted as the final appellate court for disputes over colonial matters, but each case was dealt with individually. There is no single person or institution that thinks holistically about the management of overseas empires. When King James II tried to unify the administration, his actions aroused the extreme hatred of the colonists. After the Glorious Revolution in United Kingdom, the United Kingdom government never attempted to take steps to unify the American colonies.
In 1696, the United Kingdom established a new body, the "Council of Trade", which had the power to appoint colonial governors and other high-ranking officials, and to preside over the formulation of a set of colonial policies; It reviewed all bills passed by the colonial parliament and recommended that all bills that contradicted United Kingdom policy be repealed. The colonists certainly did not like the repeal of their own laws, but the authorities in London exercised this power with restraint, with only five percent of the laws reviewed being repealed.
The American colonies were to the British Empire, as the old saying goes, "from the lake of sparse miles." As a result, United Kingdom basically adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards everything except sovereign control and commercial control, which Burke called "benign negligence." It can be said that United Kingdom never had effective, centralized rule over the North American colonies. Its colonial "subjects" have largely grown up and grown in a laissez-faire environment.