The British gave colonists many reasons to leave during the 1700’s. While there are many reasons the colonists were justified in leaving Britain, one of the main reasons was unfair taxation on colonials to make Britain money. Another reason was Britain creating their own propaganda to demean the colonists’ idea to create a new government. Furthermore, the British would strip the colonists of many of their rights. Finally, Britain would constantly deny any attempt to find peace between the two countries. As expected, Britain put certain taxes on the colonies to help regulate trade and pay for transport of goods. However, many of the taxes Britain put on colonists were for the sole purpose of creating revenue for the British (Doc 2). The reason the British believed they were justified to do this was the belief that colonists still owed reparations for British support in the French Indian war (Doc 1). The colonists found these taxes so insulting that many of them refused to purchase British goods. These taxes eventually led to the creation of peace treaties such as the Olive Branch Petition. Britain’s attempt to destroy the colonial government was to pay Loyalists to insult the idea of a government. The Loyalists accomplished this by claiming it would make the citizens …show more content…
Although any of the treaties passed Parliament, but one that did was called the Olive Branch Petition. When the petition was brought to King George, he was very angered; moreover, the colonists believed that his taxes were unfair. He then declared soon after that all colonists to be traitors and should be put to death posthaste. Tensions had been growing for years between the two countries, but the King’s decision to list all colonists’ traitors angered them so much they decided to create their own kind of government. This scared Britain to the point of attempting
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.
Then, the British began levying taxes against the American colonists. The Seven Years’ War was very expensive. The American colonists payed lower taxes than mainland English residents. Money gained from taxing items was used to pay for military defense. Colonies weren’t represented in Parliament and to tax them without giving them that representation was liking taking away their rights.
(Document 5). After ten years of disagreement over Parliamentary representation, the British were still unwilling to grant the colonists this right. Before the Second Continental Congress decided to go to war, there was still hope of reaching a peaceful settlement. The Congress sent King George the Olive Branch Petition in the hopes of restoring peace. His lack of response is noted in “The Declaration of Independence”, which was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, American Independence Day.
There were many goals that the colonists had in waging the Revolutionary War, and an innumerable amount of those goals contributed to America’s political system. A few of their goals were to convert into a country free of a king, become independent, get rid of all loyalists, equal rights between men and women, and slaves wanted to be freed. A great deal of these goals were accomplished, although they were not very easy to carry out. “The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for a king,” (Document 1). One of the colonists’ main goals was to be free of the king of England.
Many of the reasons the American colonies believed they were justified in their rebellion from England lay in trade and taxes. When George III inherited the throne at the end of the Seven Years’ War England’s debt had risen to 145 million pounds and his chief minister believed that the American colonies needed to help shoulder the debt. (Nash, et al., 2007. , p. 134) In attempting to collect these taxes from the colonies to relieve the mounting debt Parliament passed a range of acts, which led to discontent among the colonists as many of them restricted trade, their political maneuverability and left many believing they infringed upon their “right to be taxed only by their own consent.”
This is because as soon as the war was over, Britain was left with a large debt. The British thought it was only appropriate to have the colonies help pay. As a result, the British imposed taxes. The colonies were just beginning to find a slight freedom in their ruling and felt as though they were equal to Britain. These taxes imposed a monarchical tyranny and created a segregation.
Prior to the American Revolution, history had shown cases of tyrannical governments taking advantage of the people. In most cases these tyrannical governments were shown no mercy and many times they were overthrown. For the American Colonies and the British Government this was completely different. It was different in the way that the American Colonies had shown great dislike for the lack of representation, taxes, and its plain disrespect from its mother land.
During the first years of the English settlements of North America the people who immigrated from England they formed colonies that with the support of the British government. The colonist didn 't pay a lot of taxes on their trading benefits to the government. Through the years, the King and the parliament started raising taxes on almost everything that the colonist was producing in the colonies. The colonists weren 't happy with the new taxation that the king was charging to the colonies, and it led the colonist to protest at British empire. There are several reasons why the colonists revolted against the British government.
“The history of present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [unlawful seizures], all having in direct object the establishments of an absolute Tyranny over these States. ”(Document E). The British taxed just about anything they could; like tea, paper, legal documents, and stamps “Committees are appointed into the characters and conduct of every tradesman, to prevent them selling tea or buying British manufactures. ”(Document I) The British were taxing the American colonists to pay what Britain lost in the French and Indian war.
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.
Because of the great amount of power Britain possessed, the colonists were under oppression, ultimately taking action to defend themselves. Namely, according to document 5, the author states, “what is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited power?”. As the taxes began to mound on top of one over the other, the colonists began to feel overwhelmed. In response, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and three others, created the Declaration of Independence as a call to war, to offset British rule. Like the Stamp Act, the colonists answered with violence, and the violence only increased as the British made sure to oppress the
After the French and Indian War the British were had a gargantuan debt! In order to pay off such a huge debt they imposed new taxes and enforced old ones. Great Britain thought that it was allowed to pass laws like these, because Britain had protected the colonists therefore the colonists have to give obedience. Laws like the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Tea Act, and along with the British being oblivious to colonists’ pleas to change the harsh laws (Document 2) allowed
The French and Indian War left England with a debt of £130,000,000. To help pay off the debt Britain set up taxes, to collect money, on frequently used products by the colonists. The Molasses Act put a six pence tax on every gallon of molasses. The colonists thought this was a lot of money to pay so they did everything to avoid it. This act was not really enforced and the colonists did not really obey this act.
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.
British policies established in 1763-1776 greatly affected the colonists and pushed them towards developing their own republican values. All of the acts and taxes the British issued and how overly controlling the British were over the colonists was the starting point, also the increasing rebellions encouraged the colonists to break away from Britain’s rule, and finally the wars that resulted and seizing authority from the British was the final turning point for the colonists in eliminating Britain’s heavy-handed ruling over the colonists. The acts, and taxes that came with most of the acts, that the English imposed on the colonists was a substantial reason the colonists opposed British rule. After the French and Indian war the British found