What Did The First Continental Congress Accomplish?
Do you have any idea what did the First Continental Congress of 1774 accomplish?
If not, then no worries, here I will provide you the answer to this question.
| Short & Direct Answer:
1. The Successful Imposition of Heavy Economic Sanctions Over British Goods’ Import To The 13 American colonies. It Succeeded In Causing Massive Economic Losses To Great Britain And Its Companies. Till The End of 1775, This Economic Sanction Reduced British Goods’ Import To The Colonies By 97 percent. 2. Colonies Came Together And Began The Journey Towards The Birth of The United States of America. Emotionally, All The 13 Colonies Came Closer To Each Other (Though Georgia Didn’t Participate In It) After This Meeting. Congress Succeeded In Making Colonists Realize That They Were Not British Citizens, But They Have A Completely Different Identity, Which Was, Of Course, Americans. 3. As Per The Call of Congress, Each Colony Set Up Their Own Militias And Armaments For Probable Armed Conflict Against English Forces. First Continental Congress’ This Invocation Later Helped Patriots A Lot During The Battles of Lexington And Concord, Which Was Again, Of Course, The Very First Military Clash of American Revolutionary War. |
But Why The First Continental Congress Had To Accomplish Those Things?
The Parliament of Great Britain passed 5 Coercive Acts or Intolerable Acts to punish the people of the 13 colonies for the guilt of the Boston Tea Party.
These acts were highly punitive, especially towards Bostonians, Massachusetts province.
In response to the British Parliament’s 5 Intolerable Acts, 12 of the 13 British American Colonies came together in a meeting in the year 1774 from September 5th to October 26th.
The meeting was none other than but the First Continental Congress.
Via this meeting, Congress intended to create pressure on the British authority repealing the 5 Intolerable Acts.
Hence, to make them oblige, 12 British American colonies decided to impose an economic boycott over British goods’ import from December 1st, the year 1774.
The economic boycott got a massive success till the end of 1775 because compared to the last year 1774, it reduced British goods’ import to the 13 American colonies by 97 percent.
However, this incident forced the British government to become more drastic towards colonists.
The result was seen on the 19th of April of 1775 when the battles of Lexington and Concord broke out.
Another significant accomplishment of the First Continental Congress was – It first time showed the sign of the birth of the United States of America.
Because this Congress was the first major meeting when American colonies came together with a similar purpose.
Emotionally, it unified the people of the 13 colonies.
It was true that the colony Georgia didn’t participate in the meeting due to some internal issues. Yet, they had full moral support towards the initiative.
What Did The Delegates Hope To Accomplish At The First Continental Congress?
Delegates hoped that the economic sanction would create pressure on the British Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts.
However, their expectation didn’t convert into reality.
Contrary English authority went more drastic than before.
The result came out with the battles of Concord and Lexington, which fully kicked off the Revolutionary War.
Hence, delegates again became obliged to came together in the Second Continental Congress, which was happened just after a month of the battles of Lexington and Concord.
But whatever happened, we can say, the first Congress was quite successful.
Because it succeeded in bringing all colonies within one platform (except Georgia).
