Townshend Act Research Paper

The British were low on money from the French and Indian war, so Charles Townshend decided place a duty, or tax, on certian goods the colonies imported from Great Britain. Glass, paint, paper, and tea were a few of the taxed items. The colonists were not happy that they were getting taxed without their consent. Sameul Adams helped convince the colonies to start a boycott. Women played a very important part in the boycott.

The French Indian War was one of the main reasons the British Empire fell into an economic crisis. Tensions between England and its Colonies in America started growing. Many taxes were put on the colonies along with restrictions which led to the colonists to rebel against the Empire. England needed to support the war in the New World by spending money for troops and supplies for 7 years. After the end of the war, England fell into a debt.

On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the primary objective of which was to save the British East India Company from bankruptcy. It also eliminated all tea tax except the three pence Townshend tax. A third goal of the Tea Act was to offer Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers [1]. However what happened was the average American colonist became angry with this latest act in a long line of unpopular policies, laws, and taxes imposed on him by Britain [2].

Perhaps the Constitution is one of the greatest accomplishments of the United States of America. The United State’s Constitution was revolutionary to government; it was the first of its kind to actually work. The Constitution did not just appear overnight; it took the effort of many headstrong, liberty-minded people to accomplish the government that we still hold fast to and cherish today. One might consider the Revolutionary Era as the initial start of the Constitutional government that the United States has today. In the eighteenth century, Britain ruled the American Colonies with salutary neglect up until the late 1700s.

Taxes! After the French and Indian War, the British government needed money to pay for the cost of protecting the colonists from the French and Indians. The British government approved several taxes including the Stamp and Tea Acts to help pay for the costs of the war. The colonists were expected to pay these taxes.

The American Revolution (Rev.) was a bloody war, that caused many deaths, as well as freedom from the British. Thanks to the Rev. in America, it has impacted the world, and even American society, today. There was many conflicts that happened, between the Colonies and the British, before the war started. The three things that caused the most up roar are the Proclamation of 1763, taxation, and the Intolerable Act.

The Revolutionary Era was a time of British aristocracy over the American colonist, taking control over almost every aspect of their lives, specifically financially tax-wise. This was due to to the British believing that the colonists were responsible of repayment for their protection and services from the French in the French and Indian war. As the British began taxing the colonists further and further, totalitarianism began to set amongst the British government . this resulted in colonial rebellion against them for the sake of their well being and financials. As resistance and rebellion against  the British increased so did tension as well as the British’s grab for control, eventually leading to full scale attempts at independence from them.

The colonists had become accustomed to a limited degree of British regulation of trade. The Navigation Acts of 1660, for example, stipulated that no goods or commodities could be imported into or exported out of any British colony except in British ships. Later legislation stipulated that rice, molasses, beaver skins, furs, and naval stores could be shipped only to England. Duties were also imposed on the shipment of certain articles, such as rum and spirits. However, the Stamp Act was the first direct tax, a tax on domestically produced and consumed items, that Parliament ever levied upon the

“The Boston tea party was a political protest by the sons of liberty in boston, on December 16, 1773.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party). The Boston tea party was on december 16, 1773, the cause was that the british raised the tea prices. So people dressed up as Indians and dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor. There was 90,000lbs of tea (45 tons).

Prior to the American revolution, America was a cluster of colonies mainly ruled by the British government. Additionally, tea was very popular than coffee in the colonies at that time. Back in 1773, the British government ceased the Townshend Act on its American colonies but the Tea act; which was not accepted by the residents of the colonies as they still had to pay taxes to consume tea. This led to the famous incident, the so called “Boston Tea Party”, which inevitably led to the American revolution. Since then Americans switched to coffee instead of tea, as tea was distributed to the world from England via importing it from India and China.

Tension began to rise, as George III became the king of Great Britain in 1760. At first, he was an appreciated king, but because of his political views and whom he appointed as his ministers he quickly lost his fame. His first appointed minister George Greenville would impose several taxes on the colonist that would cause them to cry taxation without representation. The king also imposed the Proclamation of 1763, which regulated colonist expansion to the newly won territories in the west. And finally, after the calming before the storm, the tension broke with the Last Imperial Crisis.