After the Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War, relations between Britain and colonial America changed for the worse. Britain was submerged in tremendous debt, and that resulted in the beginning of the heavy taxation of the colonists. They also enforced stricter boundaries, such as the Proclamation Line of 1763, to prevent colonists from settling in the west of the Appalachians. Salutary neglect caused the Americans to establish their own legislative assemblies, trading partners, and religious toleration in the colonies. Americans traded with other countries, despite Britain’s theory of mercantilism. Many cultural and ideological changes also took place. Religious toleration began to differ from colony to colony based on the preferences of the people who lived there. Americans established a sense of patriotism and wanted to declare the United States as its own. The American colonies were in a political turmoil. The British lost huge sums, as large as $145 million dollars, in fighting the French and Indian War (Murray 2012). The Empire had to cover the debts so they proceed to tax the colonies heavily to easily replenish their income. Taxes such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and Currency Act were passed one after …show more content…
All the money and goods that were produced in the colonies served as a profit to Britain. There was no trading allowed between America and other countries after the passing of the Currency Act. However, they could trade with Britain and from there Britain could trade with other countries. The breaking point of the colonists came when Britain put a tax on tea and rebels in Boston dumped $10,000 worth of the East India Company’s tea into the Boston Harbor (Murray 2012). Colonists continued to rebel by boycotting British goods and strictly limiting themselves to only purchasing, buying, or making goods and services that were provided by
The relationship between Britain and her Americans colonies slowly deteriorated between the 1750s and the beginning of the American Revolution. When the first British immigrants settled in America, the relationship of the colonies and their mother country was somewhat peaceful. In the following generations, however, their relationship became tenser as Britain imposed policies and taxes on unrepresented American colonists. The British believed they were right in doing so because they had large debts to pay from ongoing wars with France. These taxes caused uprisings among colonists which contributed to British occupation in America, leading to more rebellions. Eventually, the rift in the relationship between the colonists and the British led to the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new country.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
The British colonies in America from the time they were established up until around 1763 had a policy of Salutary Neglect. Salutary Neglect meant that the British would not interfere with the colonies national or even international affairs. This benefitted the colonies, they got to experience some forms of democracy, and they also were able to experience independence in a way though they took it for granted. The British after the Seven Years War, which was fought on American soil, for the Americans protection, decided that the colonies should be required to pay for it in taxes. Britain was in debt, and their economy was in a recession, so the well off colonies tax money would have helped them considerably. The tax would only be the beginning to a long line of British policies further upsetting the colonial people.
(140) It was during this time period that “the government in London concerned itself with the colonies in unprecedented ways…to help raise funds to pay for the war and finance the empire.” (Forner 141) The British government was heavily in debt after fighting the Seven Years War on several fronts. The need to raise funds was paramount and the colonies were a ready source. The British government started imposing taxes on the colonies as a means of income. This was a change in the relationship between America and the mother country. Many Americans opposed these taxes. (Forner 142- 143) According to Forner, “Opposition to the Stamp Act was the first great Drama of the revolutionary era and the first major split between the colonist and Great Britain over the meaning of freedom.” (142) This act was eventually repealed by Parliament in 1766 after great opposition by Americans. (Forner 144) The Stamp Act was just the beginning of several events and taxes on the colonist leading up the Boston Tea
The American Revolution was caused by a series of attempts from the British to tax American colonists. After a war against France, Britain ruled an enormous overseas empire. Britain however faced war debt and was in need of money to administer the overseas empire. The crown decided that since the colonists were the primary beneficiaries of this empire, it was time to have them contribute to the empire’s revenue by paying taxes.
In response to the Tea Act of 1773, the colonists had various reactions. The Tea Act was suggested by Lord North in order to save the East India Company from bankruptcy. This act also allowed the East India Company to bypass most of the taxes placed on tea, except for the Townshend Act tea tax. The Tea Act made the East India Company’s tea the cheapest, even with the tax. The colonists were
The French and Indian War and its aftermath ruined the political relationship between Britain and the colonies. After dominating most of North America (Doc. A), Britain decided to tax the colonies even more to help pay for the war. This took a major toll on the relationship between Britain and the American colonies because this lead to the Proclamation of 1763. The Native Americans (Doc. B) believed “they have no Right to settle” which means they didn’t want anyone settling on their land. In (Doc. C) George Washington is asking Robert Orme to have more power and rank higher in the military. Another political change was Britain’s relinquishment of the salutary neglect policy. They put stricter rules on trade and forced taxes on frequently used items. These changes (Doc. F) angered the colonists.
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
After the French and Indian War, the British government decided to make the American colonies pay a large share of the war debt with new taxes that they issued. The English ...
During the Seven Years War, the British sent over ten thousand troops to America to deal with property problems at the frontier. This cost a large amount of money, and Britain did not want to see the sum come out of its own pocket. To pay for some of the expense, Britain began to pass acts to tax the colonists and lighten the severe debt the empire was in.
After the Seven Year War, Britain now needed to find ways to generate money, and felt that since the war was fought on American land that they should help pay for its cost, and they decided to issue new taxes on the colonies trying to offset some of the cost of the war. One of the first acts they presented was the Sugar act in 1764, lowering the duties on molasses but taxed sugar and other items that could be exported to Britain. It also enforced stronger laws for smuggling, where if prosecuted, it would be a British type trial without a jury of their peers. Some Americans were upset about the Sugar Act because it violated two strong American feelings, first that they couldn't be tried without a jury of their peers, and the second that they couldn't be taxed without their consent.
The British Order in Council said ¨The British revenue only paid for a fourth of the cost and was inconsiderable ¨ (DOC 6). Due to not being able to afford to protect the colonies Great Britain developed mercantilist policies in order to gain some money. Mercantilism benefited the mother country but the colonies were only allowed to trade with Great Britain making them overspend for items in order to gain some revenue. The colonial government now had less power because of this policy of mercantilism. Soldiers at the time thought that they were not being treated fairly, one soldiers diary said ¨And though we be Englishmen born, we are [denied] Englishman's liberty (DOC 4). The British treated colonist with less respect than they would have if they were from Great Britain which caused a divide worsening the relationship between Great Britain and the American colonist. Taxes were also enforced in the colonies to pay for the British troops. The colonist thought this new taxation seemed unfair, they saw it as death to their liberties (DOC 7). Great Britain introduced tax such as the stamp act (1765), the sugar act (1764), and the Townshend acts (1767). American colonist thought that they should have taxation with representation so they formed groups such as the sons and daughters of liberty and boycotted taxed
Up until the time of the Seven Years War (French-Indian War), the colonies were fairly independent and self-governing. The Proclamation Act of 1763 was one of the first mandates that the British Parliament forced upon the American colonists. The act created an invisible border along the Appalachian Mountains that the American colonists could not cross without having the permission of the British government. The goal was to limit immigration to the west until new agreements could be made with the Native Americans, who Britain wanted to prevent another war with, and to protect business ventures such as the fur trade. This resriction came as a surprise to the American colonists, who felt that they deserved to settle this land after winning the war. To add insult to injury, the British Parliament, which was suffering from a huge amount of debt as a result of fighting the French, decided to tax the colonists to recoup their expense.
The British also implemented new taxes. The Sugar act of 1764 sought to reduce smuggling, which occurred partly as a result of the earlier Molasses Act. This gave British possessions in the Caribbean the upper hand in sugar trade, which in the British view helped the empire as a whole, but to Americans, and especially the merchants, this put limits on their opportunities. The Currency Act, passed about this time forbade the printing of colonial currency. British merchants benefited because they didn't have to deal with inflated American currencies. The Americans felt they were at an economic disadvantage as very little sterli...
The British citizens were being heavily taxed and the French and Indian War had taxed the British heavily. They thought that it was only right that the colonists whom they had spent so much money protecting, and who were taxed lightly in comparison with the other British citizens, to help pay. Note please that prior to this the British had allowed the colonists to tax themselves and did not impose revenue raising...