The American Revolutionary War has been known to inspire other nations to fight for their independence. This revolution has also given birth to a new nation that was built on a new fundamental system. But what led to a war between the greatest empire and a new imperfect colony were events like: The French and Indian War of 1754, The Sugar Act of 1764, The Stamp Act of 1765, The Boston Massacre of 1770 and a few other occurrences. Due to years of lack of attention and misuse of powerful from England had forced the American colonists to break away from their motherland. Each event has deepened the wound and sparks a new idea of independence. Tension between the British and its colonies began after the Seven Years’ War also known as the French …show more content…
According to The American Revolution by Joseph C. Morton, “(British) faced with a debt of some 140 million pounds sterling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Grenville in 1764 inaugurated the Grenville Program with the introduction of the American Revenue Act (commonly known as the Sugar Act).” There were older laws on regulating trade but the Sugar Act was the first act that targeted revenue in the colonies. A revision of the Molasses Act of 1733 that taxed on non-British molasses, the Sugar Act added more harsh tax law on sugar, non-British textiles, coffee, and Spanish wines (Morton 20). The idea of taxation without representation began to occupy the American colonists’ minds. During that same year, George Grenville had also passed the Currency Act 1764. The act prohibited the use of paper money in the thirteenth colonies, “this object was to standardize currency and prevent wildly fluctuating notes and coins, but the real effect was to take money out of circulation and stifle colonial trade,” (Allison 6). In other words, the British government wanted to gain more control on the colonies. The Currency Act upsets the colonies due to the fact that it favored the British over them. Their needs had been over looked continuously making the bond between the British and the colonies
The Sugar Act of 1764 (or Revenue Act) was an attempt to reduce the debt encountered by England after the Seven Years’ War. Prime Minister George Grenville was the one to enforce it. The problem was that merchants and gentry were not pleased with the Act. Consequently, they protested against it. In addition, another Act, called the Stamp Act, was declared a year later.
This resulted in larger taxes on the colonists, as well as laws to force them to pay the new taxes. One of the first laws was the Currency Act of 1764 to make sure colonists would not pay in paper money, as it was not actual currency to them. The Sugar Act renewed an old law that states that sugar and rum from anyone except Britain would have a tax. The difference between the old law and the new one was that the new one was reinforced, and the tax on the sugar was lower. This tax was fueled by the Sugar Interest.
The Road to Revolution The American Revenue Act of 1764, is called the Sugar Act. It was a law that attempted to curb the smuggling of sugar and molasses in the colonies by reducing the previous tax rate and enforcing the collection of duties. It added several products such as hides, skins and potash to the list of enumerated commodities that could be legally exported under the Navigation Act. It was introduced by the new British Prime Minister, George Grenville.
Rohan Mishra January 15, 2014 From their first involvement in the New World up until the early 1700s, Britain did not concern itself too heavily with the colonies. The colonies kept an amiable attitude towards the British due to this and thrived under their lax rule. This relationship unbalanced as a direct result of the French and Indian War of 1754 - 1763. The events of the war impacted both the political and ideological relationship that the colonies had with their king, as colonists felt the British imposition of restrictions encroached on their liberties. However, the most significant impact was made economically, the debt that the war created for the British was pinned on the colonists and they were
This act required that many documents such as licenses, diplomas, contracts and even playing cards to be printed on embossed paper that had a tax on it. This act was the very first attempt to tax the colonists directly for activities that occurred solely with the colonies themselves. After the French and Indian War the British national debt skyrocketed and the Prime Minister was eager to pay it down before the government was bankrupted.
The French and Indian war brought about immense change to the relations between the British North American Colonies and Great Britain itself. The British Empire defeated the French and their Indian allies in (year), and as a result Great Britain gained sole control over the future Colonial land areas which would later become the East Coast of the United States. As a result, more time and thought in Britain will be dedicated to the internal behaviors of the colonies rather than foreign competitors. Now, Britain will get more involved in Colonial daily life. This is the overarching idea that creates the division between the British Empire and its North American Colonies.
This was extremely disturbing to the colonies because of what they had written in the document about the taxes. George Grenville 's plan insisted that all of the taxes that they collected go directly to the soldiers who were protecting the North American Colonies. He also informed the colonies that those who tried to avoid using the tax paper that they would be tried in a court of law and not by a jury of their peers. The British Crown was ready to enforce these sanctions on the colonies, which is why they informed them of their intention to raise the taxes. The Stamp Act of 1765 was so unpopular and not liked by the people that they decided to send
In order to help pay off the debt the war had caused, they implemented two laws to extort money from the colonists. The first was the Currency Act of 1764, which prohibited all colonies from making and using their own paper money. This allowed creditors to demand payment in gold and silver, which was needed in the colonies. The second law was called the Sugar Act, which lowered the tax on imported molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon. Parliament hoped that this law would stop merchants from bribing customs officers to certify their French molasses as British by making it a lower price to begin with.
The American Colonies and the British Parliament developed quite the contentious relationship during the period between 1763 and 1776. Many of the policies enacted by Britain seemed justified to those back in Parliament, but the consequences of this time period have impacted history in a fantastic manner. Several actions and reactions from both parties managed to drive a deep wedge between them, leading for the colonies to call for independence from Great Britain in 1776. After King George III ascended to the British throne in 1760, and following the Treaty of 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War, George looked to recoup some of the money they had expended to defend the American colonies over the previous nine years. As
During the French and Indian war there was peace between the british and the colonies. But after the war, Britain fell into a large debt due to war cost. They felt the only way to make up for that debt was to tax the colonist without their consent. And this was just the beginning of the road to Revolution. King George continued to show to who he really was and that he was not afraid to get what he wanted.
The French and Indian war (also known as the seven year war) marked a huge turning point in American relations with Great Britain. Prior to the war the British and the French were in conflict and it reached America and was know as the seven year war which was from 1754 to 1763. The British had neglected any involvement with the colonies affairs except maintaining their policies for mercantilism. After the war the British were in debt and the colonies relationship with the mother country was strained. The war ended the period of neglect and conflicts worsened greatly.
During the mid-1700’s after “Seven Years War”, the British became submerged under a massive debt from fighting in one of the empire’s most expensive war. To absorb the impact of the war debt, Prime Minister of England George Grenville, shifted part of the war debt to Britain’s colonies. Throughout the mid-1700’s Britain imposed intolerable acts upon the colonies such as the sugar act, stamp act, tea act, coercive acts, so on and so forth. Though the colonies trying to fight for representation so taxes can be passed with a majority’s approval instead of members of parliament making colonists decisions, never declared a full on war with the mother country or even wanted to separate in the first place.
In 1763, Britain started to force the colonies to pay taxes even though they greatly opposed. The French and Indian War debt, although Britain won, was one of the first reasons taxes were increased. Secondly in 1764, the Sugar Act was passed. Unalike Walpole’s salutary neglect policy, these new taxation on sugar and molasses was enforced, upsetting the colonials. And in 1765 the Stamp Act put taxes on paper goods which upsetted the colonials more.
Because they became that far in debt they began passing tax laws that would affect the colonies tremendously. People of the American colonies rejecting the authority of the British parliament beginning around 1765. The Sugar Act that was passed in 1764 was a tax just for revenue and the Revenue Act was an alternative name for the Sugar Act. It put taxes on sugar, molasses, wine, indigo and coffee. The following year the Stamp Act of 1765 was passed
Oppression in the Colonies Though the colonists fled from Europe, they were still under the king’s reign. The king started to exploit his power and expose towards the colonists, first with unfair taxation without representation which means he taxed the colonists goods to help pay debts in Britain, than the intolerable acts which were laws made by the king that negatively affected the colonists but benefitted the King and Britain, along with other oppressive legislation. In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which placed a tax on newspapers, almanacs, cards, legal documents, and other paper documents. Although this was not the first tax that Parliament had placed on the American colonists, it was the first tax to affect everyone,