Why Did England Gain Control Over The North American Colonies

The level of resentment between the 13 Colonies and the British was enough to spark a revolutionary war and it did. The outrage over taxation without representation was only intensified when the town of Concord got word that the British were coming to confiscate their weapons and their gunpowder. According to Forsht (2011) author of the Boston Tea Party the British fought several costly war of which they wanted the American Colonies to pay by stamping them for printed materials such as newspaper, magazines and playing cards. Forsht (2011), stated that the American colonies had no representation in parliament yet they were being taxed by a government in which they had no voice. This was all going to change on the night of 19 April 1775.

Around 1750, England took more interest in the colonies than they previously had; not about the people or civilizations, but about the money and potential profit the colonists could make for the British. After more than a century of populating the lands and growing farms and cultivating new industries, England jumped in and ended their salutary neglect with the colonists and began to impose laws and taxes on the colonists so they could make as much money as possible off of the colonists. The British felt that making money passively like so would be a good effort to restore a large portion of the funds they lost after the French and Indian War. Unfortunately for the colonists, this not only interfered with their lifestyle but disturbed their business ventures in several ways. Due to these fifteen or so years of having to deal with the British, by the eve of the revolution the colonists had developed a strong sense of their identity and unity as an American Nation.

Some of the ways in which the colonists responded to British actions between 1765 and 1770 were the Stamp Act, the stationing of British troops in Boston, the Townshend Act, and the Tea Act 33. The Stamp Act was put in place so the colonist would pay tax on every legal paper, license, newspaper, and almanac. The stationing of British troops in Boston were because the Boston and Philadelphia both agreed to not give goods or take good from Britain until the Stamp Act was taken away. The Townshend Act was placed a year after the Stamp Act was taken away. The Townshend Act was almost like the Stamp act but it did not place a tax on every little thing, it was the more important things they placed a tax on like glass, lead, paint, and paper also

The level of resentment between the 13 Colonies and the British was enough to spark a revolutionary war and it did. The outrage over taxation without representation was only intensified when the town of Concord got word that the British were coming to confiscate their weapons and their gunpowder. According to Forsht (2011) author of the Boston Tea Party the British fought several costly war of which they wanted the American Colonies to pay by stamping them for printed materials such as newspaper, magazines and playing cards. Forsht (2011), stated that the American colonies had no representation in parliament yet they were being taxed by a government in which they had no voice. This was all going to change on the night of 19 April 1775.

Ever since the first English establishment in the Americas, the colonies were never as close to their mother country. In fact, before the Seven Years War, the British completely neglected (Salutary Neglect) the American colonies due to a series of conflicts and wars between the European countries. Although the colonies were allowed to run on their own, they also had to maintain the mercantilist policy

Mercantilism was meant to protect English companies by generating wealth and was stimulated by an accumulation of profit. The Navigation Acts were a byproduct of mercantilism in the British colonies. These acts restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between England and the colonies. They were enacted because the British wanted the full profit from their goods. Salutary neglect was the British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of Parliamentary Laws aiming to keep the colonies obedient to England. Salutary neglect lead to the growth of a colonial economy, and demands for local rule. Smuggling was the colonists’ reaction to the Navigation Acts. They ignored the restrictions, and continued to trade with the French, Dutch, and the Spanish West Indies. The colonial shippers bribed the British trade officials in order to continue their illegal

Between 1650 and 1696, British Parliament passed a series of Navigation Acts limity colonial trade by using the system of mercantilism; it forbade the colonists from trading specific items such as sugar and cotton with any country other than England. Colonist will protest about the unfair taxes and requirements they were expected to follow under the NAvigation Acts England responded to these protest by saying it would benefit everyone because, there was a steady market for these goods in England. Not all colonist agrees. Some colonist resorted to smuggling items in and out of the overall treatment by the British.

Before the seventeenth century, countries such as Portugal and Spain had controlled the rich lands of the Americas, and England was left out of the race due to religious conflict back home. However, when Queen Elizabeth came into power, England’s power also rose in the colonial game in the America. Some of the first colonies they gathered are the ones of Virginia and Carolina. They also acquired the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island. Pennsylvania and New York were other colonies that they gathered too. These six colonies are a part of the famous first thirteen colonies that we know of today, and their formation and purposes helped to form America into the nation it is today.

The English wanted to keep their competitors from dominating in international trade. Also, they wanted to keep the colonist from becoming competitors and increasing their economy. Due to these acts, North American colonies couldn’t compete with the English manufactures, and trade practically didn’t exist between the colonies and other nations besides England. Another main reason English mercantilism harmed the development of North America was taxation. England needed money to pay for its war debts.

The reason England won the struggle to control the North American continent is because they had a strong military and had a plan set out for when they colonized in America. At first they had a very weak military, but when they beat the undefeatable Spanish Armanda, they’re military strength increased. At that time, the Spanish were one of strongest nations in the world and in the early 1600’s, their economy started to suffer when they started to overexert their army. That’s when England economy started to become stronger. They were more focused on expanding their land and gaining more profit. The British main goal was to colonize the North American continent, and the French and Spanish didn’t really focus on colonizing North America, but to

The Stamp Act, which placed a tax on a product that came into the colonies, was one of the events that were a catalyst in the revolution. Thus began to be dissension among the colonists. Colonist began to distrust the loyalist, British subjects that were in colonies governing over the colonist. . At the same time line as the Stamp Act , the tax act of 1773 was placed, which stated that there was a tariff placed on any goods sold out of the North American colonies. This tax then made the products that the colonists made to trade less competitive to the rest of the world because there was a fee attached to purchasing them. Of course the fee was paid to the British government. Once the British government implemented the Tax Act and the Stamp Act they needed individuals to collect those funds and manage them so they sent Royal British subjects to act as administrators in the colonies this infuriated the colonists

Mercantilism is the belief that a country must export more good than it imports to build its economy. In the case of Britain and the New World colonies, the colonies had to send raw materials directly to England where they would turn those raw goods into manufactured goods and sell them back to the colonists. The Navigation Acts, passed by British parliament, enforced this idea by prohibiting the colonists from trading with anyone other than England such as the Dutch as well as the law that all goods had to be carried on English or colonial ships. However, the king developed a policy of salutary neglect towards the colonies and does not strongly enforce these acts because he wanted their loyalty to be to him rather than the French and therefore

The British Empire tried to control the colonists by passing laws that the American Colonists considered unjust. Some of these laws, to name the few, were the taxation without representation, American Colonists were not allowed to export goods to other countries except Britain and they were forced to only buy English products. Great Britain also expected the colonists help pay for the cost of the French and Indian War. In addition to this, some acts were created, for example: the Sugar Act, that placed taxes on products that would help pay for the war, the Stamp Act that required all paper documents to carry an official stamp on it, the Townshend Act created to avoid problems with the American colonists because of the taxation, the Tea Act

England's biggest motives were to increase its wealth and to get ahead of spain. Getting settlers to colonize the new world would shift the balance of power from Spain to England.

Although Mercantilism benefitted both the colonies and Great Britain in many different ways, it can be seen favorable to Great Britain because mercantilism justified their control over the colonies and enabled them to believe that wealth is equivalent to power, and that their economic, military, and political power could be measured by amount of gold or silver obtain. The British government looked at the colonies as tenants who were expected to equip products that were necessary in the mother country, including tobacco, sugar, and ship mast’s. Furthermore, they were unable to export certain products, such as woolen cloths or beaver hats and that they must buy imported manufactured goods exclusively from Britain. The colonists were also forbidden to indulge in vexatious dreams of economic self-sufficiency or self government. Parliament also passed laws to regulate the mercantile system such as the Navigation Law of 1650, which was intended for rival Dutch shippers who were trying to get into the American carrying trade. Following these acts, all commerce going to