It all began with a king, a printing press, and a bible...
Long long ago in 1536 in merry ol' England a King Henry VIII had a problem with the church. Henry was upset that he hadn't had a son to continue the monarchy, so he wanted to replace his wife of 23 years with a younger, more fertile model. The Pope refused to give Henry an annulment, and in the ensuing argument Henry decided that since he was king he wanted his own way. He declared himself the head of his new (and hopefully improved) Church of England. The Pope wasn't hot on this idea, so he promptly excommunicated Henry for thumbing his nose at Rome. As the head of his new church, Henry decided that the Bible should be printed in English and that all of the churches should have a copy. Suddenly the bible was readily accessible, and everyone wanted to read it. The English reformation was on the rise, and everyone wanted a shot at interpreting scripture for themselves.
A little freedom goes a long way...
People discovered that they weren't going to be executed for speaking out against Rome, and suddenly everyone had an opinion about how the church should be run. Henry was tolerant to a point, but after a lot of scuffles and a few executions people started to decide that maybe they needed to leave England and find a place where they could worship as they choose. After cruising around many places but not finding a free thinking country that they liked or would tolerate them, the different groups started eyeballing America as a cozy place to go so they could worship as they pleased. Many of them landed on the shores of America with a bright new hope for the future and the hopes that the king would find a different group of people to torture. Religious groups settled mainly in the northern area of America, where they could go about their business and worship as they pleased. As long as they paid their taxes and sent goods back to the homeland, the king didn't care. England was an ocean away, and Henry was happy to get the dissenters out of his hair.
Things went ok for awhile, until the good ol' king of England started causing trouble again. By now king George was in charge, and he didn't like the way things were going. America was a long way from Europe, and the settlers had become quite comfortable in their roles. They were enjoying their freedom, and didn't think the king had his crown on straight when it came to governing their new lives. They were getting a mite grumpy over rulers who were an ocean away and didn't have a clue or a care as to how they wanted things done. They started thinking they could do a better job governing themselves which of course was unacceptable. King George seemed to think he was still in charge, and those ungrateful subjects needed to be taught a lesson.
Talk about an epic power struggle...
The king had sent several troops to defend the colonists during the French an Indian war, and he felt that he was entitled to payback for his efforts. George needed money, and it was the colonists' responsibility to see that he had it. He made laws, and despite repeated attempts by the colonists to make changes through Parliament he just wasn't listening. Who were these upstart peasants to tell a king what to do? Things came to a head when the unruly peasants dumped a whole bunch of tea into Boston Harbor. The king got fed up, closed the port of Boston, and imposed martial law in Massachusetts. The colonists responded by boycotting British goods and floating the idea of an association with France. The Continental Congress, formed by the colonists in 1774, discussed it through the winter of 1775-1776 and decided that if Henry wasn't going to see things their way, then they were going to break ties with him and become their own country. The war to determine who was in charge was on.
Want to know how it ended? Come back for part two next time and find out how the founding fathers convinced a group of British citizens to go to war.
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