Rohan Mishra January 15, 2014 From their first involvement in the New World up until the early 1700s, Britain did not concern itself too heavily with the colonies. The colonies kept an amiable attitude towards the British due to this and thrived under their lax rule. This relationship unbalanced as a direct result of the French and Indian War of 1754 - 1763. The events of the war impacted both the political and ideological relationship that the colonies had with their king, as colonists felt the British imposition of restrictions encroached on their liberties. However, the most significant impact was made economically, the debt that the war created for the British was pinned on the colonists and they were …show more content…
The king British policy of policy of salutary neglect had recent that the colonists could enjoy the benefits of trade with and protection from the British without discomfort of rigid control. However, this changed as the war progressed. In the second stage of the French and Indian War, beginning in 1756, Britain sought to impose greater control on the colonial war effort. We see this reflected through a colonial soldier’s thoughts when he mentions that he is not offered the “Englishman’s liberty” (Doc D). He was impressed (forced to enlist) into the British military and is not provided with liquor and other necessities a normal British soldier would be given. As this is cited in 1759, we see a change in the colonial opinion towards the end of the war. This mistreatment of colonial citizens caused great appreciation and discomfort among the colonial soldiers and people, which would later incite revolt against Britain’s …show more content…
(Doc A). By doubling the size of British territories within the New World, the Treaty of Paris forced Britain to place more soldiers into the Americas, therefore creating further spending to be imposed on colonists. This, along with the large amount of debt generated by the Seven Years War posed a great economical loss to the British, which they then pushed onto their colonies. This taxation caused increased aggression on the part of the colonies, further pushing the British and the colonies apart. However, the colonists did not wish to pay taxes for a war that was fought for their own defence. A 1763 British order in council found that the revenue from the colonies could not even pay a fourth of the cost of collecting it. It also reported that “neglect, connivance, and fraud” had hampered revenue collection in a staggering of greatest need (Doc F). The British then saw it as justified to seek new sources of revenue from the colonies. The British extracted this revenue from the colonies through the Stamp Act of 1765, which required that colonists pay a tax on all paper goods. The goods were stamped, hence the name of the act. This first direct tax imposed on the colonists was seen as an unequivocal way for the British to raise revenue. This added to colonial hostility against the British, and led to much public outcry. This is notable in Document H, where we see a picture of the Pennsylvania
The act placed a considerable tax on all paper goods. At this time the colonies were not in the mindset of wanting to break away from the British crown. They would have rather reconciled with it. The colonists however did detest the new tax and they created a Resolution Of The Stamp Act Congress in 1765 in which they directly contacted the King himself to plead their case. The Colonists created a letter in which they sought to remove the taxation due to the fact that they had no representation in British parliament.
One loud shot was fired, leaving everyone with the question of “who fired first,” The Revolutionary War had begun. The American colonist were unquestionably right in waging war and breaking away from Britain. The colonist no longer wanted to be under Britain's strong mercantilist. Conflict had rose between the mother country and the colonist. The American colonist were justified in waging and breaking away from Britain because of taxes, treatment, and mercantilism.
The French and Indian War altered the relations of the American Colonies and Britain through political, economic, and geographical issues. At the start of the French and Indian War the French owned a big majority of land but the during the war the French lost their land to the English. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave the English, the French land of North America (Doc A).
The American Revolution was an ongoing controversial topic that is the subject of many debates and historians’ studies. A war that some say was all to blame on the colonists. On the contrary to this belief, this war was to blame on the British due to their irrational acts, laws, and taxes passed. These enacted rules angered many colonists as the acts, in turn, caused bankruptcy for many citizens. The unfair ordinances resulted in a series of bloodshed battles, beginning in 1775 and ending in 1783.
This made the theme taxation without representation a common catchphrase in the colonies. Colonists were agitated since they presumed that they didn’t begin the battle with the french indians. Paragraph #6 The Stamp act 1765The Stamp act was put taxes on the colonist for the use of newspapers, licenses, and colonial paper. The act was passed by the british parliament on March 22, 1765.
The French and Indian War was one of the bloodiest war fought on American soil that consolidated British dominance in the Western Hemisphere. It was also the precursor to the American Revolution, where colonists demanded freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from Great Britain. Among the major leaders of the revolution, Benjamin Franklin stood out as a more experienced politician due to his experiences in the French and Indian War and his dealings with the proprieties and governors of Pennsylvania. During this time, Franklin also gained reputation as a scientist who performed an experiment that discovered the nature of lightning and electricity using a kite. Furthermore, Franklin introduced the idea of self-determination to the colonies,
The French and Indian war, also known as The Seven Years War, allowed Britain’s dominance to become prominent due to the French being exiled. The French and Indian war also marked the separation of colonial interests from British interests. Due to the debt the war caused Britain upped the taxes, the upset over the taxes sets up the stage for revolt and paved the path of revolution. The taxes, lack of Parliamentary representation, benign neglect, economic oppression, and extremely restricted trade caused by the French and Indian War catalyzed the events, marking a major turning point in the history of our young nation, leading to the war that was a long time coming to fight the Motherland of Britain for the freedom of the new and angered
During the French and Indian War this reluctance caused King George and the Parliament to question the loyalty of some colonies and led the British government to commit even more strongly to keeping a strong British hand in colonial business. Colonies and England When the French and Indian War, and its European counterpart, the Seven Years War, officially came to a close with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, North America was divided territorially between the British and Spanish. The treaty had distributed people among two sides and neither side wanted to be controlled and always wanted to be independence on their own. In Britain, it was widely assumed that the professional troops sent to the colonies deserved full credit for British victory in the war. Colonial debts to Britain grew rapidly, and many began to suspect that the British intentionally plotted to enslave the colonists economically.
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.
Soon after the Seven Years’ War, the British and the colonists learned that victory came with a rather expensive price (Kennedy, Cohen, & Bailey, 2010). Great Britain tightened its grip on the colonies in North America, expecting colonists to pay for their financial struggles. In order to make colonists pay for the war, Great Britain reminded the North American colonies who had authority by controlling the colonists to submit to various ordinances ratified by British Parliament. This action only showed that arrogance leads to rebellion socially, economically, and politically. Socially, a lack of communication between Great Britain and the North American colonies was to blame for the Revolutionary War.
The American Revolution The French and Indian War impacted the American Revolution in many ways. Britain incurred a large debt from the cost of the war and the taxes that they imposed on the colonists created feelings of anger and rebellion that led to the revolution. As a result of the French and Indian war, the British were not at full strength which allowed the actions of the colonists to be more effective. Because of the outcome of the war, France was willing to help the colonists. Without the much needed help from the French the colonist may have never won the war.
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
The Britain felt that it was only natural that the American colony would pay the mother country more for their protection after the Seven Years War with France. England was trying to relieve some tax burdens by increasing the tax on the colonies (xix). “that the main purpose of country’s overseas possessions were to serve the business interest of British merchants and manufacturers and to provide the mother country with raw materials” (xvii). However, such increase in demand, and pressure seemed unfair to the American colony despite the fact that they had been paying less tax compared to an English
The French and Indian War was important to the American Revolution because the debt from the war was the reason that Parliament started taxing the colonists. Also, the French and Indian War made Britain very weak, making the colonists’ actions work a whole lot better. Since France was not happy with the outcome of their war with Britain this was a main reasons for France’s interest in helping the now Americans throughout the Revolutionary War, which was very important to the colonies’ victory. The reason why Britain started to tax the colonists was because of the debt resulting from the French and Indian War. The first tax was the the tax on sugar, which was put on the colonists to help pay off the war debt.
In 1765 March 22, The Stamp Act began. It was when American colonists were taxed on any kind of paper product. Such as ship’s paper, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. All of the money that was taxed was used to pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachians Mountains. Although this act was unpopular among the colonists.