The new acts of the Colonial Era sparked a controversy between the American colonies, the British Government, and the British Parliament. The British felt that the colonists should be held responsible for the debt owed by the British armies while they were protecting the colonies during the French and Indian War. The colonies strongly disagreed and upon hearing this the British devised a strategy against its relations with the colonists that would continue to make things worse between the two nations.
The British Parliament passed several new laws and acts over the New England states, which in turn caused the colonists to retaliate against them. The colonists felt the laws were unfair and they would not stand by quietly while the British reaped the unjust benefits. According to Schultz (2010), acts such as the “Sugar Act of 1764 (p. 84), the Quartering Act of 1765 (p. 85), and the Stamp Act of 1765” (p. 85) further angered
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the people into publicly protesting. The colonists responded by forming boycotts and arranging riots against the British Government. This would have a bearing on the colonists who dumped chests of tea overboard during the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
The Boston Massacre of 1770, killed five colonists and wounded six more due to a misunderstanding with a fallen soldier and stick. They [colonists] would later shut down the ports in New York, decline British exports to the colonies, and raise the number of people who attended and participated in each event. Harsher displays of intimidation were shown from mobs throughout the towns of Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and South Carolina (Schultz, 2010). “Tax collectors were either found hung, tared and feathered or had their houses burnt down by leaders of a group known as “The Sons of Liberty” (Schultz, 2010, p. 87). These types of punishment from mobs were considered to be some of the severest forms taken, and most officials would quit their positions after hearing of these occurrences. Taxes could not be collected, and the laws could not be enforced since no one would volunteer to take the place of these unfortunate
men. The point made by the Colonials were not taken lightly by the British, and they repeatedly made the decision to repeal the laws the colonists fought the hardest and longest to overthrow. There were several other events in history that led up to the continual rebellion of the colonists in the second half of the 1700’s, and wars were always the most recognizable. According to the U.S. Department of State (n.d.) “The opportunity for peaceful negotiation came to an end, and the war for American Independence began on April 19, 1775, when the British troops and American colonists clashed at Lexington and Concord” (para. 11). References U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian. (n.d.). Parliamentary taxation of colonies, international trade, and the American Revolution, 1763–1775 - 1750–1775 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. Retrieved April 24, 2016, from https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation Schultz, K. (2010). The Revolution. In HIST2 (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp.84-87). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net/ccj/default.aspx?SectionID=2822&tabid=149#2.
After the French and Indian War, Great Britain was in tremendous debt and had additional land to rule. By cause of their debt and their obligation to their new land, they began to put taxes on the colonists living in that land. The colonists were enraged because they were getting taxed without representation in British Parliament. Two acts that caused some of these reactions are the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. Overall, British actions after 1763 caused numerous reactions from the colonists, which led to the American Revolution.
The British were facing economic difficulties after the French and Indian war; therefore, they passed taxes on the colonies to help repay the debt. Initially, the British introduced the Sugar Act in 1764. The colonists did not approve of the British taking control over them. The colonists opposed the Sugar Act because they had to pay three cent tax on sugar. In addition, the Sugar Act increased the taxes on coffee, indigo, and wine. This act was the start of colonist frustration. Subsequently came the Stamp Act the following year in 1765. The Stamp Act was the mind changer for many colonists known as the Patriots. The Patriots started forming as a result of England enforcing acts. The patriots believed the colonies should go to war and separate
In order to obtain some of the colonists’ finances, Britain began to pass a series of taxes. The Stamp Act was passed in 1765, and placed a tax on any paper goods that were going into the colonies from Britain. This included newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards, just to name a few (Stamp Act).The colonists had been so accustomed to their freedom from the crown at this point, that they were enraged. The relationship between the Mother country and the colonies did not get much better with the instatement of the Townshend Acts of 1767. These acts passed taxes on every day goods that the colonists needed, such as lead, tea, glass and paint (Townshend Acts).
After the French and Indian War ended, England had massive debt and little revenue, so Parliament passed laws taxing the American colonists to aid in paying for the British army and navy that helped protect the colonies. Parliament passed a series of laws, including the Sugar Act and Stamp Act, which taxed goods purchased by the colonists. Colonial merchants, who did not feel they should be taxed without representation in Parliament, signed non-importation agreements promising not to buy or import British goods. There was a lot of violence committed on the customs officials who were enforcing the...
During the War for American Independence, 78 men were commissioned as general officers into the Continental Army by the Continental Congress. Many of these generals commanded troops with differing levels of competence and success. George Washington is typically seen as most important general, however throughout the war a number of his subordinates were able to distinguish themselves amongst their peers. One such general was Nathanael Greene. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Greene would become Washington’s most important subordinate, as demonstrated by Edward Lengel’s assessment of Greene as “the youngest and most capable of Washington’s generals.” Washington and Greene developed a strong, positive and close relationship between themselves. Greene began his life in the military after having been raised a Quaker. With limited access to literature and knowledge in his younger years, Greene became an avid reader which equipped him with the knowledge necessary to excel as a general during the war. Through his devoted study of military operations, firsthand experience and natural abilities as a soldier, Greene became an excellent military commander. He would become known for his successful southern campaign, during which, he loosened British control of the South and helped lead the war to its climax at Yorktown. Throughout the war, he was involved in a number high profile battles where he built a reputation of being an elite strategist who also understood unconventional warfare, logistics, and the importance of military-civil affairs and had a natural political/social acumen. The thesis of this paper is that Greene’s proven reputation of being a soldier, strategist and statesman would cause him to become the second greates...
Without colonial consent, the British started their bid to raise revenue with the Sugar Act of 1764 which increased duties colonists would have to pay on imports into America. When the Sugar Act failed, the Stamp Act of 1765 which required a stamp to be purchased with colonial products was enacted. This act angered the colonists to no limit and with these acts, the British Empire poked at the up to now very civil colonists. The passing of the oppressive Intolerable Acts that took away the colonists’ right to elected officials and Townshend Acts which taxed imports and allowed British troops without warrants to search colonist ships received a more aggravated response from the colonist that would end in a Revolution.
Instead they passed new acts which were worse than the ones passed before. As a result of the Tea Act, all the taxes except the tax on tea was repealed in order to keep Parliament’s right to tax the colonies, and the colonists did not like this act. As a result of their anger towards the British, the Boston Tea Party occurred: Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston Harbor and empty 342 chests of tea to the Boston. Still, the British kept on trying to control the Americans, but this time, they passed 4 acts, the Intolerable Acts, in order to punish and control people; The Boston Harbor would be closed, the people of Boston would have a curfew, Massachusetts would lose its self-government/town meetings, royal officers would be allowed to be tried in Britain, and the British troops would use empty buildings. Instead of giving Americans the freedom they wanted, the British punished them. Yet, this did not stop Americans. Instead, they were even angrier to the British for the strict rules the British was passing in order to control the colonists. They knew they had to do something, which resulted in continental congresses, the Articles of Confederation, and the American Revolution. The British was not going to stop trying to hold power over the colonies, and as Patrick Henry started off by saying “Caesar had his Brutus — Charles the first, his Cromwell — and George the third — ” and finished “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it”(Wolverton, Joe, II). This was no longer of a fight against the British, but a fight to be
Before 1763, the only British laws that truly affected the colonists were the Navigation Acts, which monitored the colony's trade so that it traded solely with England. As this law was not rigidly enforced, the colonists accepted it with little fuss. The colonies also accepted England's right to monitor trade. The change of course in 1763 was what really riled the colonists. England began to slowly tighten its imperial grip on the colonies by ordering the British navy to begin strictly enforcing the Navigation Laws (The American Pageant, pg 125). Additional problems began when. This was a powerful weapon against smuggling, but most importantly to the Colonists; it allowed the invasion of their privacy. This was crossing the line and violating the rights of an English man.
For a colony of the British government to rebel against the large, wealthy English country needed to take an extreme amount of resentment towards that group. The British themselves caused this resentment towards the English government. Act passes by the government caused this feeling; these acts began with the quartering acts of 1765. The quartering act of 1765 confirmed the colonist’s need for an independent, free nation because of subjugation of the colonists by the English government. This subjugation spurred a movement that ended in revolution.
The Intolerable Acts of 1774 greatly fueled the First Continental Congress. In response to the Boston Tea party, the British Parliament decided that a series of laws were needed to calm the rising resistance in America. “One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed tea. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts.” As one can imagine, the American colonist viewed this as the British attempt to curtail their quest for independence.
Socially the people of the colonies were considered lower than the citizens born in England this made the colonists angry as they considered themselves English citizens. They eventually started to wonder why people from so far away, who did not know what was going on in the colonies, should create rules for them. After the French and Indian war, once the acts to tax stamps, sugar, and other goods the colonists protested because they had no representation in the matter of the taxes. The King stated because they spent so much money on the war to protect the colonies that he should be allowed to tax them at will, However the colonists believed the war was not for their protection and benefit, but to strengthen the British empire and therefore deserved representation if they were to be taxed. When the Quatering act was placed it further strained the relationship between the British and colonists.
Leading up to the time of the Revolutionary War, seven policies were passed by Britain in hopes of controlling the colonies. These acts culminated in the Quebec Act which persuaded many Americans into supporting the revolutionary effort. The Proclamation of 1763 was the first policy passed by the British. This forbid any settlement west of Appalachia because the British feared conflicts over territory in this region. The proclamation, however, infuriated the colonists who planned on expanding westward. The Sugar Act was passed shortly after in 1764. This act sought harsher punishment for smugglers. The next act to be passed was possibly the most controversial act passed by Britain. The Stamp Act passed in 1765 affected every colonist because it required all printed documents to have a stamp purchased from the British authority. The colonist boycotted British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed but quickly replaced by the Declaratory Act in 1766. The British still held onto the conviction that they had the right to tax the Americans in any way they deemed necessary. The Declaratory Act was followed by the Townshend Acts of 1767. This imposed taxes on all imported goods from Britain, which caused the colonies to refuse trading with Britain. Six years passed before another upsetting act was passed. In 1773, the Tea Act placed taxes on tea, threatening the power of the colonies. The colonies, however, fought back by pouring expensive tea into the Boston harbor in an event now known as the Boston Tea Party. The enraged Parliament quickly passed the Intolerable Acts, shutting down the port of Boston and taking control over the colonies.
These acts were passed because Britain used an extraordinary amount of funds in the Seven – Years War. Although Britain conquered North America, the funds used during the war left Britain with very little money. British Parliament faced opposition through mass protest and violent outbreaks because their blatant disregard for the colonists’ liberties and opinion through the passing of these acts. The overall issue that sparked rebellion was that taxes were forced on people who had no representation in the British Parliament; thus the people felt as if they had no voice. Therefore the American Revolution occurred as a result of the colonists’ discontent with the decisions of the British
The costly French and Indian War created a divide between British Parliament and the colonists that was temporarily appeased when William Pitt returned recruitment control to the colonists and reimbursed farmers and tradesmen for their goods and services that had been forcefully taken. However, this peace was short lived when British Parliament tried to acquire complete control of the colonies and regain financial stability by passing the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Duties, the Tea Act of 1773, and the Intolerable Acts of 1774. The acts greatly inconvenienced the colonists and led to the Boston Massacre of 1770, the Boston “tea party,” colonial unity, and the first shot at Lexington that sparked the American Revolution.
In the aftermath of the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, Britain had triumphantly conquered the French power. With this victory, Britain had successfully secured the eastern part of North America. Even though Great Britain defeated France and its allies, the victory came at a great cost. The expensive war against the French caused Britain’s national debt to skyrocket from 75 to 133 million pounds (Notes). To reimburse this major financial burden, Britain relied on the colonies. By imposing a sequence of taxes and regulations such as the Navigation, Sugar, Stamp, Townshend, and Coercive Acts Britain deflated the debt. Consequently, these tariffs would ignite protests and discontent among the colonists. Their rebellious actions would soon