Essay question: "Why were the American colonists happy to be part of the British Empire before 1765? " (word count: 1939) The North American colonists were content with their status under British policy before 1763. The mid-1760s marked the end of the Seven Years War, known to the Americans as the French and Indian Wars. By that time several changes in the metropolitan government’s policies started to arouse discontent in the colonies. British governance after 1765, as complained by the American colonists, exploited them economically, lacked colonial consent, differed in their conception of imperial organization, fell short of constitutionality, dominated them in military terms, and rescinded the policy of religious tolerance. Such changes …show more content…
Ever since the earliest settlement, the Americans developed in themselves a distinct notion of empire. They thought of themselves as self-governing entities. They envisioned the empire as a federal polity where each constituent division had its own authoritative legislature. For example, since 1619, in Virginia and New England the colonist had been exercising certain autonomy. In terms of taxation, it was their custom that they ‘exercised and enjoyed the privileges of imposing and raising their own taxes, in their provincial assemblies’. They were happy with this status before 1765, which was marked by salutary neglect. However, after 1765, the colonists felt a quick loss of political autonomy from the metropolitan government and were unease. It was because the metropolitan government asserted itself more boldly in the colonies and imposed imperial supremacy more forcefully on them. It restricted American migration onto lands to the west of the Appalachian crest, curbed the use of paper money, limited colonial trade. And, as aforementioned, it raised revenues from the taxations that defrayed the expenditure of the Empire. Another conflict arose as the American Mutiny (Quartering) Act of 1765 empowered colonial governors more in the way that ‘when British garrisons were moved to any place where inadequate barracks existed, they might be put into barns, inns, and private residences’. It even asked the colonists to ‘supply various items to the troops … to help meet the costs of the British garrison’. It required little imagination to sense that such military imposition on the colonists’ lives certainly provoked resentment. As a result, for fear of loss of political and economic autonomy, the colonists mounted vociferous response to London. In Virginia, people cried that ‘only the governor and legislature of
A. Hook – incorporate info. French and Indian War B. Transition - While the American colonists fought as allies of the British during the French and Indian War, the British victory greatly affected their postwar relationship. C. Thesis - The emerging war between the American colonists and Great Britain was inevitable by January 1776, • as changes in British policies angered American colonists and forced them to seek colonial independence from Great Britain o As colonists felt changes in British policies were too oppressive • as the British continued to impose direct taxes and polices on the colonists, as well as restrict their civil liberties D. Support a. Economic b. Political c. Emotional/psychological 1st Body Paragraph A. Economic Impact
Quartering Act is a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area. The Quartering Act was one of these new measures and was passed on March 24, 1765. The British sent an additional 40,000 soldiers to the colonies in 1765 to protect the borders of the colonies and also to help to collect taxes from the colonists - it was a British show of force. The Quartering Act The colonists disputed the legality of this Act because it seemed to violate the Bill of Rights of 1689.
I believe that the nature of the colonists’ opposition to British rule in the year 1763 to 1776 was all the above being political social and economic issues. First and foremost, I would like to begin with the economical aspect of the problem which began with the Stamp Act of 1765, which required all colonist to purchase watermarked, taxed paper which at the time was used in newspapers and all legal documents. The stamp Act of 1764 was the first tax imposed on the colonist by the parliament which lead to great disagreement. Three years later, in 1767 after the repealed of the Stamp Act prior that year parliament passed revenue act better known as the “The Townshend duties “which taxed the most frequent used items in the colonist such as lead, glass, paper and tea, tea being a popular drink at the time, enraged the colonist even more which than lead to the
By 1763, at the end of the French and Indian war, it was clear that the identities of those in England and the colonists were very contrasting. Although there were colonists whose
The colonists desired a sense of freedom and power that was not obtained by the sovereign rule of England, so they instituted an improved governmental system that resolved most of their concerns, but was not without faults. The way England was controlling and monarchially put doubts and frustration in the minds of the commonfolk in America who felt used and dissatisfied (Doc 1). As a result, the Declaration of Independence was written that renounced the jurisdiction of Great Britain and gave themselves the independence. This also had the negative impact of the descent into fighting and the allegiance issue (Doc 2). Shown in document 3, there was a separation of the population in the colonies because some remained loyal to the crown.
The protests of the taxes began to multiply across the colonies. In 1767 the Chancellor passed a series of laws that would raise the revenue known as the Townshend Acts. This made the Englishmen fill insulted once again. Following that, the British sent four regiments of soldiers to Boston to help maintain law and order. The Englishmen did not like the idea of the troops being in the colonies.
At the dawn of the 1770s, American colonial resentment of the British Parliament in London had been steadily increasing for some time. Retaliating in 1766, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act which repealed most taxes except issued a reinforcement of Parliament’s supremacy. In a fascinating exchange, we see that the Parliament identifies and responds to the colonists main claim; Parliament had no right to directly tax colonists who had no representation in Parliament itself. By asserting Parliamentary supremacy while simultaneously repealing the Stamp Act and scaling back the Sugar Act, Parliament essentially established the hill it would die on, that being its legitimacy. With the stage set for colonial conflict in the 1770s, all but one
The relationship between Britain and its American colonies was civil at first but began to strain in the mid-1700’s. In the beginning, Britain ruled colonies with little involvement because they were busy dealing with the French and Indian War among other things. As a result of this, the colonies were typically left in charge of themselves with little interference from British authorities. After years of being left alone, the colonists had developed a feeling of freedom and independence. When the war ended there was a significant change in the relations between England and the colonies.
Between 1763 and 1775, there were three ‘Imperial Crises’ which occurred between the British and the American colonists. The conflict that was produced during this period arose through an undefined balance of political and economic power between the two parties. In 1763, Britain had just concluded the French and Indian war and was left with an immense and almost crippling debt of around 140 million pounds sterling (“Turning Point In American History”). In Britain’s eyes, the most effective way to reduce this debt was increased taxes. Unfortunately, the people of England were already massively overtaxed, which meant the last option for the British was to tax the American colonists.
The colonists wanted representation when it came down to being taxed, but the British government would not allow it. The government wanted full control over the people, so they made sets of acts and laws that were placed on taxation. For example, the Stamp Acts of 1765. These acts taxed all papers, pamphlets, newspapers, and cards. The Townshend Acts of 1767 were also a large part of taxation.
During the Colonial Era (1492-1763), colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain; due to the inequitable Stamp Act, the insufferable British oppression, and the perceived tyranny of King George III, the king of Great Britain, however, the colonists were unjustified in some of their actions. In Colonial America, colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain, because the Stamp Act was unfair and viewed as punishment. Because of the war, Britain had no other choice but to tax the colonists to pay for the debt. For example, according to document 2, the author states that the act was not only for trade but for “the single purpose of levying money.”
They believed they had the right to “assemble, consider their grievances, and petition the king” if they found the grievances against the British to be many (Document 6). The colonists must have risked their lives, money, and pride in order to achieve equal representation and total liberty rather than just attaining lower taxes and lowering trading restrictions. Even before the American Revolution, the colonies had viewed themselves as self governing. However, once the British ended the salutary neglect the colonists had blissfully enjoyed, it became clear that the British were beginning to restrict their local representations by shutting down their town meetings and placing soldiers everywhere as an attempt to stop the smuggling of goods and to enforce their taxation acts by issuing the Quartering act, which obligated the colonists to house the British soldiers. As a result of these new acts imposed by the parliament, nine colonies sent out a representative to New York in 1765 to discuss these acts with each other.
The Quartering Act disrespected the privacy of Americans (Document 5). Moreover, this act allowed British soldiers to barge in on the colonists’ home life, forcing them to provide food, utensils, bedding, firewood, and other objects for the soldiers. In addition to this, the Quartering Act showed that the British were disinterested in how Americans lived their lives in their homes and purposefully sabotaged the colonists’ leadership in their homes, showing that the British controlled the colonists’ homes. The Stamp Act also demonstrated that the British were apathetic towards the colonists’ opinions (Document 6). The Stamp Act taxed newspapers and pamphlets, which outraged the colonists.
DBQ Between the years 1750 and 1776, England was locking down on the colonies, imposing lots of taxes against the colonists such as the Stamp Acts and Townshend Acts. Tensions were high between England and the colonies and the idea that a Revolution might take place wasn’t out of the question. And it was between those 25 years that colonists in America began to find a sense of unity and a sense of their own individual identities.
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