Compare And Contrast The British Policies Between 1763 And 1776

The British policies having to do with the American colonies that passed between 1763 and 1776 were an attempt by Britain to have the colonists pay for the French and Indian War and an attempt to keep the colonies subservient to Britain. However these policies backfired and cause the colonist’s to resist British authority and strengthened their commitment to republican values in government. The policies implemented new taxes in order to raise funds and tried to keep the colonists powerless against British rule, as well as causing the colonists to turn to more republican ways of self-governing. The oppressive British policies were the reason the colonies united in rebellion and turned towards a republican government.
The British had a large

war debt after the French and Indian War, and in order to avoid taxing the British public to pay for the war, Parliament turned to taxing the colonies to raise the money. In 1764 the Sugar Act was passed which increased the tariff on sugar while lowering the tariff on molasses, it also set up new courts to put accused smugglers on trial away from the local sympathetic juries. This angered a few northern merchants because it meant that they couldn’t rely on the cheaper goods from smugglers, and that they had to raise their prices, and therefore lost business in the colonies. The Currency Act of 1764 made it illegal for the colonies to print and distribute paper money. This effected the southern farmers because they used paper money to take out loans, that were now worthless and so they fell into debt. These first acts helped the colonists realize they needed to set aside their griefs with the other colonies to go against the bigger threat of the London policy makers. The workers in the towns suffered from reduced opportunities for work because of the new restrictions on manufacturing and currency. When Lord Chatham, formerly William Pitt, took office as Prime Minister, he was often incapacitated by mental illness, so the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend led most of the administration. Townshend imposed new taxes on goods that the colonies imported from Britain, which caused the northern merchants to boycott the goods. These acts caused the colonies to see that they needed to come together against a greater threat.
Colonists saw the policies that Britain passed as a way for Parliament to bypass the local government and to keep them powerless against the changes that were taking place.

The Stamp Act of 1764 placed a tax on all printed documents, which the colonists saw as a way for Parliament to levy revenue money and circumvent the local governments. In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed due to large boycotts of British goods which caused the British merchants to suffer a loss of income, but while the colonists were distracted Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts which gave them unrestricted authority over the colonies. The New York and Massachusetts assemblies refused to supply the British soldiers as the Mutiny Act of 1765 required them to. The New York Assembly was disbanded by Townshend in 1767 in an attempt to single New York out and avoid angering all of the colonies. The Intolerable Acts, passed in response to the Boston Tea Party, closed the port of Boston and limited the power of Massachusetts’ government. This caused the colonies to unite in support of Massachusetts, against the British oppression. The attempts of weakening the colonial governments caused the colonists to see that Britain was trying to maintain control over the colonies and take away their governmental

powers.
The British policies caused the colonists to turn towards a Republican government in order to give control to the people. In response to the Stamp Act, Patrick Henry of Virginia gave a speech that proposed that Americans had the same rights that British citizens had, and that they should only be governed by their elected officials. At the same time James Otis of Massachusetts called an intercolonial congress to respond to the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress as it was called agreed that colonial government should be the only ones with the power to impose taxes. The colonists drew many ideas from English philosophers who theorized the only way to have an uncorrupt government was to have a way to keep the government in check. The colonists opposed Britain’s unwritten constitution, and instead favored the colonial charters which were a set of rules that were inscribed on paper. The colonists felt that Britain’s way of virtual representation, that all representatives represented everyone, was unfit and that a government should be an actual representation, where representatives represent a single group or geographical area.