Before conflict started to erupt between the British and the American colonists, there was the end of the French-Indian War in 1763. The British government was given enormous territorial gains from the war and many of the colonists were eager to move westward onto new, fresh land, especially considering that the colonists had claimed that land in the war. However, to improve Native American relations, the British issued The Royal Proclamation of 1763, which declared the boundaries of the thirteen colonies to be the Appalachian Mountains. The British government saw the proclamation not as oppressive, but as a fair way to prevent more Native American-colonial conflict and in no way expected colonial resentment. Yet, countless American colonists were enraged by this proclamation. …show more content…
The colonists felt that the proclamation was a limit to their power and authority in the colonies. In protest, the colonists took to the westward trails, clogging pathways and moving out west. More significant than the immediate effects of the Proclamation of 1763 was what the Proclamation signified. It was the initial sign that England was starting to take an interest in the American colonies again, marking the end of salutary neglect. With this legislation, several decades of virtual independence in the colonies was over and the British began to assert their authority over their colonies. Additionally, the Proclamation illustrated that the relationship between the British and the colonists had become tenuous, a relationship where both sides were increasingly regarding the colonists as not quite fully Englishmen and not quite fully