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Essay On Why Did The British Win The Revolutionary War

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The French and Indian war in a way was a Pyrrhic victory for the British. The British won the war, but in doing so, they set into action a course of events that would lead to their downfall in North America. When the colonies wanted to expand west and encountered trouble with the native Americans and the french that were trying to claim the land the British came to their aid. However, war is not cheap. The price of victory, according to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was 40 million British pounds. That equals $61,702,000 not adjusted for inflation. Someone had to pay back the debt. The British citizens were understandably upset about it as it caused a tax raise for them and they had nothing to do with it. The British government decided to increase taxes among the colonies to pay for the war and the British soldiers that had to stay to protect the colonies. In the Proclamation of 1763 colonists were prohibited from moving west of the proclamation line for fear of provoking another war that Britain couldn't pay for. This caused the relationship between the colonies and their mother country to become strained. …show more content…

This imposed a tax on all imported goods. The colonists were more angry about the fact that they had no representation in parliament. They wanted to be represented in government if they were going to be paying taxes. To make matters worse in 1765 The Stamp Act was passed which required almost all papers to have a stamp on them as proof that the tax was paid. This included legal documents, playing cards and even newspapers. Again the colonists were resentful of the fact that they were being taxed without representation in parliament. Eventually The Stamp Act was repealed, however the colonists remained

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