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Stamp Act Summary And Analysis

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After the Seven Years’ War concluded, the mother country to the colonies, Great Britain, was left with a tremendous debt. In order to pay this massive amount of money off, Parliament decided that rather than just tax the home country of Great Britain, the colonies in the Americas needed to be taxed as well. However, such taxes would not bode well with the colonist which led to more prevalent resistance by the colonies. In response to resistance, Great Britain repealed the Stamp Act and in turn released the Declaratory Act in attempts to show that British power in the colonies was absolute. After the Stamp Act was passed, the colonist’s congregated to pass resolutions regarding the Stamp Act, and British Parliament responded with the Declaratory …show more content…

With the new, young, and immature king came some doubts and insecurities as he ran through ministers quite rapidly (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2015). This allowed Grenville to be removed as first minister and replaced with an individual who was actually against this taxation of colonials. Resistance and repeal also proved that virtual representation back in the colonies would not stand, and there needed to be a new system in place. Even with the repeal of the Stamp Act and a sense of victory, the British Empire was quick to accompany the repeal with another act. Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, asserting that it had the power to make laws for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever” (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2015). It didn’t seem to bother the colonist, though, as they still believed that the British Empire had no right to impose taxes on colonies in the American and stood by that belief. The passing of the Stamp Act to pay for the debts of war waged not by colonials, but rather the motherland surely would not stand for colonial. Consequently, opposition to taxation of colonials, especially opposition to the taxation without virtual representation led to even riots congregations. Succeeding in proving that the Stamp Act was unconstitutional led to Parliaments repeal, but put greater pressure on the government to show they were, indeed, still the great power that governed the colonies led to the Declaratory Act. Overall, these 3

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