What was the main reason for the American Revolution?

Answer 1

In truth, there really is no one answer to what caused the American Revolution. If you had to boil it down to one answer, however, it would be the changing relationship between the colonies and the British government.

Up until the Seven Years' War (aka, the French and Indian War), the colonies were governed by a policy known to historians as "benign neglect." Essentially, so long as British merchants were profiting from colonial trade and resources, nobody rocked the boat. During this period, while there were a few attempts to govern the colonies - primarily in regards to trade restriction, i.e., controlling who they were allowed to trade with - most of these were ignored. For the most part, the colonies operated almost akin to British client states, supporting British foreign policy and supporting British interests, but in control of their own domestic affairs. In a lot of ways, the various colonial assemblies viewed their relationship with Britain as equal to Parliament: Parliament passed laws in the British Isles, the colonial assemblies passed laws for the colonies, and both answered to the King.

Following the Seven Years' War, however, the British government needed money in order to pay its debts, and they turned to the colonies, who up until this point were considered a financial sink to for the government as they collected no taxes or tariffs from colonial commercial activities. The colonial assemblies, however, were appalled by this unprecedented exertion of control by Parliament (which was the one who levied these taxes). These assemblies, which consisted primarily of the large landowners and merchants most affected by these taxes, believed that only they had the jurisdiction to levy taxes in the colonies, as they had no representation in Parliament.

In many ways, Parliament considered the colonies as a subservient population, almost akin to a conquered people, meant to be exploited for the sake of the home country, the colonies themselves viewed themselves as English citizens, with the right to be treated as equals within government.

While many other things went into the revolt - the Boston Massacre, the Coercive/Intolerable Acts that put Boston under martial law, the Proclamation Line of 1763, etc. - it was this exertion of control by Parliament over the colonies that set the whole thing in motion.

Answer 2

The main reason for the American Revolution was that the colonists were tired of the high taxes that the British were putting on them. The colonists were being taxed without representation in Parliament and this made them angry.