The mid 1600s onwards was a time of great disparity between the colonies and Great Britain with an overriding theme of conflict. At the time, a message took at least six weeks to sail across the Atlantic to and from the colonies and England, and the colonists were pretty dependent on English goods for survival. Beginning in the mid 1600s the colonists endured changes such as the Great Awakening religious movement and the Enlightenment intellectual movement. Both of these movements along with with Benign neglect from Great Britain in which the English turned a blind eye to smuggling and bribery among the colonists and created an unsettled society that would eventually rebel. At the end of the French and Indian War however, the colonists were …show more content…
The British’s debt forced them into a position to impose large taxes on the colonists but much to the colonists discontent. Beginning with the Stamp and Sugar acts which were taxes put on by the British government. The stamp act taxed any paper product; for example, letters, certificates, or any printed material were colonists were required to pay a tax on, which hurt business owners. The sugar act was a tax put on any sugar that was sent to the colonies. These taxes greatly angered the colonists and their frustrations derived from the idea of “no taxation without representation.” This phrase describes the colonists contentions that they should not be taxed unless they have representatives in Parliament. They felt they should be able to have a say in what they were being taxed for. The stamp act was eventually repealed by the government because of the giant uproar it created in the colonies. There were many people who tried to avoid paying the stamp act taxes while they were in place, so the British assigned people to monitor this. Many of these monitors were killed because the public …show more content…
They were a series of four acts enacted by the British Parliament on the colonists and one on Quebec. The colonists finally decided to take legal action and organized a meeting amongst the colonists that defined the American grievances, developed a plan for resistance and articulated a constitutional relationship with Britain. The First Continental Congress tries to define the legal relation between the colonies and Britain. The goal of the Continental associations were to create a de facto government. If a person in the congress takes care of the smaller issues then when there is a bigger issue, the population will stand behind them because of the previous aid. They also laid the groundwork for an insurgency. Moving forward, the British military heard that the colonists were stockpiling weapons. They went into the area looking for the stockpile, but they were not able to find anything. On their way back to boston, they were ambushed by the colonists as they stayed in their nice neat rows. The Americans considered this event called the Lexington Concord the first win. The colonies under the Second Continental Congress Decide to build an army and appoint an officer, George Washington, who opens foreign associations to get allies and begins to print money. After questioning Parliaments power, the colonists gain confidence in their
The British Parliament made the colonists angry by implementing a multitude of different taxes to help carry the financial burden that was going on in Britain and in the Colonies; in some aspects the British used the money to help the colonies, but Parliament often took the taxes too far. The first major act that that will be looked at is the Sugar Act of 1764. The reason that this first tax (act) was implemented was to regulate the smuggling of sugar and molasses into the colonies from the French and the West Indies, or any other non-British Caribbean sources, hence the name “Sugar” act. The act itself was a revamped version of the 1733 Molasses act. Basically, the act was set up to create a monopoly for the British plantations in the West
In North America during the seventeenth century there were a lot of changes, a lot conflicts and a lot of resolutions. The English colonies that were established during this time period underwent huge amounts of change. Some of these changes were good and some of these changes were bad. They would go from being almost left to themselves to being one of the biggest things for the monarchy, for a number of reasons.
All of these acts contributed to the continental congress being formed in 1774. This was an example of the colonists uniting under one goal, which was to gain their rights, and freedom from the British. In the second continental congress in 1775, they wrote the Declaration for the Causes of Taking up Arms. This stated that the colonists would do whatever they had to do to gain their independence, even fight for it if they had to. They still weren’t ready to officially declare independence form England yet (Document E).
Throughout the 1650s to the 1750s, the colonies went through drastic changes in many ways, most importantly, economically and politically. In the 1650s, the colonies were in their beginning stages. They would struggle for a while in the beginning, however, through time they would overcome all circumstances. In the 1750s, the Colonist would have a stronger economy and would begin to depend on themselves rather than Britain.
Starting in 1764, friction arose between the American colonists and Great Britain lasting a lengthy amount of time. The superior Great Britain enacted several measures to raise profit from the thirteen 13 colonies causing resentment from the settlers. Rising protests and resistance led to a rebellion of the American colonists. The rebellion led to the battles of Lexington and Concord to break out on April 19, 1775. British troops are sent to confiscate American weaponry in Massachusetts, where they run into a militia of minutemen.
Everything from legal documents to playing cards were taxed, so that the British could pay for the French and Indian War. The British declared the tax fair because the American colonists were profiting from the protection of the British troops. Many colonists saw the tax as unfair, which is when the term “taxation without representation” came into light. The colonists had no say over the legislation’s passage since they had no representation in the British Parliament. Eight years later, in 1773, another tax was passed by the parliament known as the Tea Act.
There was lots of change going on in England around the time of the French and Indian War. Before the war, all the English people and colonists got along fine without any big problems. After the war, however, England was in debt and needed to find a way to pay it off. They immediately decided to start taxing the colonists to make more money. This is what upset the colonists, as it appeared to be taxation without representation.
However, a new law was put into place by Parliament that put taxes on all imports to the colonies. All of the acts, which included the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Declaratory Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act and Intolerable Acts, caused the colonists stress and built up their anger and resentment toward the British government (Cayton 113). As the tension built, the colonists chanted “No taxation without representation,” which meant that the colonies should not be taxed because they did not have anyone in Parliament speaking for them. The colonists did this because they felt it was discriminative to put taxes on them without representation for them in Parliament. One of the taxes, called the Stamp Act, affected all the colonists.
In the 18th and 17th centuries, the English colonists saw unity between powers as helpful towards them that both can benefit, but some saw it as ways to just cause controversy. Now you can look at it as being all put together and well organized in your colony or having disagreements that can lead to pulling an alliance apart. The similarities and differences were used between the colonies and provided new developments that changed the way the colonist looked upon their neighbor. For example, in Document 6 there 's a political cartoon and it symbolises how it the pieces were put back together then it can get stronger and become more powerful. It gave a meaning to if you did not join the French and their Indian allies or be destroyed by their power.
Throughout the 1700’s, the thirteen colonies faced a great deal of injustice that led them to fight for their independence from the British. Before the war, the British parliament had begun taxing the colonists in order to pay off their own personal war debt. The Stamp Act, Townshend Act, and Tea Act were all taxes imposed on the colonists. Despite of their social class, gender or race, all the colonists came together to protests and rebel against the unfair taxes. Eventually, this combined resistance led to the shared motivation of colonists to separate from the British and become independent.
This group of men became known as The First Continental Congress. Serving as the colonies’ unofficial government, they responded to Britain with an embargo on British goods. The second time the Congress assembled, the Revolutionary War was well on its way. A year after, in 1776, Congress published The Declaration of Independence. At the time, announcing America as an independent nation was a momentous decision.
In 1774, delegates from the colonies formed what was known as the First Continental Congress to send a list of complaints to King George III. The King ignored the colonists. In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and decided it was time to create a document that declared America's independence from Great Britain. Since the King kept ignoring the colonists' complaints, the only choice left for the colonies was to rebel.
Around the year 1776, important Englishmen in the colonies discovered that they could use the development from creating a country, the United States of America, they could control the land, profits, and take the power from people in favor of the British Empire. In addition they could hold back potential rebellions and
The colonists wanted representation when it came down to being taxed, but the British government would not allow it. The government wanted full control over the people, so they made sets of acts and laws that were placed on taxation. For example, the Stamp Acts of 1765. These acts taxed all papers, pamphlets, newspapers, and cards. The Townshend Acts of 1767 were also a large part of taxation.
Arguably, these taxes were only placed by Britain to “milk” the colonies for profit. Ben Franklin responded to the Stamp Act, writing a letter to John Hughs to discuss efforts to get it repealed (Document G). . In a way, the series of taxes applied by Parliament would spark a fire within the colonists and begin the American Revolution, where Americans finally say enough is enough. The time had come for political and ideological change, where the colonies would break from their motherland, Great Britain. In conclusion, the French Indian War would kick off a series of political, economic, and ideological events that changed the relationship between Britain and its colonies forever.