The Boston Of The York

Huge debts were owed to Great Britain for supplying the colonists with military support and supplies. To pay the dues, there was the establishment of the Stamp Act, the taxation on domestic goods and services. A tax on domestic merchandise brought even more anger to the colonists. The Sugar Act, the Townshed Duties and the Tea Act were also all introduced with the same fundamentals: applying tax on goods whether it be directly or indirectly, domestic or international. “British commercial regulations imposed a paltry economic burden on Americans, who enjoyed a rapid economic growth and a standard of living higher than their European counterparts” (McGaughy). Each act resulted in irritated colonists. Some even retaliated by tarring and feathering certain English tax enforcers living in the colonies.

     In order to understand how the relationship between Britain and the American Colonies became so strained, we must first examine the nature of Britain’s imperial authority. Economic relations between the two entities were

There were several acts that were passed without the consideration of the colonists that would force them to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes to the British mainland. One of these acts was named the Stamp Act, which was enacted in 1765, forced the colonists to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper that they used. This would include legal documents, license, commercial contracts and newspapers in the tax. This tax mostly effected the wealthier and influential of the colonists and would force them to unite in opposition. There were several other acts that would be passed that would force the colonists to pay undue taxes to the British, such as the Quartering Act and the Tea

They thought that there was not good enough reason for the new taxes. England on the other hand stated that they taxed the colonist more because they were nearly bankrupt after the French and Indian War. That felt someone had to help compensate and since the American colonies benefited more. They need to bear most of the cost for England’s’ protection and administration. (Pg.536). Between 1763 and 1774, the government passed a new series of laws; placing the colonies under strict restrictions and making them pay higher taxes.

The American Revolution: the war for our independence. This revolution opened the door to our liberty, freedom, and basically what America is now. Most Americans have heard the stories of famous battles, important people (George Washington for instance), and everything in between. However, this was only for our side of the American Revolution and a small fraction of people have been told of Britain’s campaign of the revolution. The only thing people have been told was the Britain lost the war. What of Britain’s triumphs, strategies, and everything that happened in the span of a few years? Not many people know it, but the British struck a major blow against the Patriots in the last few years of the war. Even though the United States won the

The colonists did not mind the taxes as much because some of the items that were taxed were unnecessary, however they did mind that the British were using their power as an excuse to tax the people for no reason (controlling them). The people’s money was not used in a useful matter, it was used for nothing, just extra money for the British to have. “The raising of revenue… was never intended… Never did the British parliament, (until the passing of the Stamp act) think of imposing duties in America for the purpose of raising a revenue. The Townshend Acts claim the authority to impose duties on these colonies, not for the regulation of trade… but for the single purpose of levying money upson us.” (Document 2). The British just decided one day to just tax the colonies for no reason and the people had no say in it. Also, the British soldiers would come to Boston and take the Boston colonists jobs. Men and women would lose their jobs because the British would take it away from them, they were stealing people’s jobs. The British were taking their money and now their jobs after all the colonists did for them in the French and Indian war. That is not fair for them to run the people like that and it had to be

When Great Britain controlled the colonies, the Colonists could not live the life they wanted to. They had low paying jobs, were not treated well by the king and his soldiers, and on top of that Britain posted extra taxes on goods. The colonists were already poor from low pay jobs, so taxes just added

In an excerpt from the Second Continental Congress, the colonists questioned, “What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited a power?” (Document 5). They felt as though they were unprotected under British rule. King George of England acted as a tyrant, freely taxing the colonies for no good reason. John Dickinson, a leader who served in the Stamp Act Congress, stated, “Never did the British parliament, (until the passage of the Stamp Act) think of imposing duties in America for the purpose of raising revenue” (Document 2). After the Stamp Act, none of the taxes were justified; the colonies were being taxed simply to create income for Britain. With the unlimited control and absurd taxes, the colonists were bound to start a

America, unlike Great Britain, had the colonists pay light taxes to the colonial government, allowing for whatever needed to be done, to be done, by taxing themselves. Britain’s taxes were for regulation, and not for profit, unlike America up until 1764 when the British Parliament changed all policies and enacted laws to make money from the colonists. This new imperial system consisted of three goals: the ability to provide for colony security, the reassertion of authority over the colonies, and the shift of financial burden of war debt and

The American colonies had good reason to suspect some other motives were at play in Britain and with their fears came more taxes. With their ever-growing belief that in some way Britain was devising a plan to seize their liberties, colonists started to boycott British luxury goods so Britain would have to stop the taxes since they would not be making revenue. However, this did not stop Parliament from adding new taxes to the list. In 1767, the Townshend Revenue Acts were imposed and set a new series of taxes on the colonists to offset the costs of administering and protecting the American colonies. Items taxed include imports such as paper, tea, glass, lead and paints. The restrictions Britain

The king would not get any extra money from taxes that way. On top of that, the British merchants would not get any money, so the merchants were getting mad. The first tax did not get as much resistance because it was the first, and the colonists probably thought taxes would be temporary. But with the townshend acts, the colonists were a little mad. This caused the first major drop in values. For some reason when the Townshend Acts were repealed, values shot way up, then down but not quite all the way back down. Then the Sons of Liberty went down to the Boston Harbor. They were dressed like Indians and dumped all the tea into the harbor in what is called the Boston Tea Party (Doc. 4). As punishment, the coercive acts were established, closing the Boston Harbor. Without direct imports, colonists practically stopped all trade and imports lost almost all value.

From the end of the French and Indian War to the beginning of the American revolution, colonial resistance and commitment to republican values escalated. British imperial policies between 1763 and 1776, such as taxes and acts without representation and how the British treated the colonists, pushed these factors over the edge. Countless taxes were placed on the colonists in this time period, including the Sugar, Stamp, Tea, and Currency acts. These were placed on the colonists so that the British could pay back their debt that they acquired during the French and Indian War.

The first reason was that the British had a large amount of debt from the French and Indian war. Despite winning the war, the British had to surmount a large sum of debt, ergo the taxes on the colonies. The second was that the British at home felt the colonists should pay an increased number of taxes. The first tax; passed in 1764, was the Sugar Act, which taxed sugar and molasses. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, led to a tax on all paper goods.

The relations between England and the British North American colonies could always be considered precarious. Prior to 1750 British essentially followed a policy of benign neglect and political autonomy in the American colonies. (Davidson p.97) The colonies were for the most part content with benign neglect policy, relishing in a “greater equality and representative government”(Davidson p.95) within the colonies. Competition among European Imperial nations began to effect British policy toward North America colonies causing rapid shifts from 1750 to 1776. During this period, the British Empire made a series of policy decision that sealed the fate of the British North American

While America was founded on protecting essential liberties of its citizens, from an economic standpoint Britain was not necessarily oppressive. They had the legal right to pass laws for the colonies. The problem that many of the colonists had been that Great Britain usually left the colonies alone to do their own thing so when they did interfere many colonists did not like that. One misconception is that high taxes played a factor in the Revolutionary war, but in actuality it was the fact they were being taxed without representation. Some of the taxes that were passed were the Stamp Act(1765) and the Townsend Acts(1767). Many colonists felt like they should not have to pay these taxes because they were passed by the English Parliament, and not by the colonial