3.3

• The French and Indian War was exceedingly expensive to wage for the British
• The British sought to clamp down on the American colonies and require them to help bear the financial burden of the French and Indian War
• Salutary neglect


  The British Parliament left many of the day to day decisions of political rule to the colonists themselves, despite having political sovereignty over the American colonies
• The British now wanted to regain control of the colonies and implemented a three-pronged plan
• Three-pronged plan to regain control of the colonies

  • Stricter enforcement of current laws like the Navigation Acts
  • Extending wartime provisions into peacetime with the Quartering Act
  • Imposing new taxes like the Sugar Act and Stamp Act
• The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all paper items produced in the colonies
• The Currency Act prohibited colonial assemblies from printing their own paper currency
• No taxation without representation

  The colonists believed they had natural rights that could not be violated, and that they should only be taxed by representatives from the colonies
• Groups that protested the taxes

  • Sons of Liberty
  • Daughters of Liberty
  • Vox Populi
• The Stamp Act Congress in 1765 petitioned the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act, acknowledging they were loyal subjects
• Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and Sugar Act in 1766, but also passed the Declaratory Act affirming their right to pass laws in the colonies
• The Townshend Acts of 1767 levied taxes on items like paper, tea, and glass imported into the colonies
• The colonists organised protests and boycotts in response to the Townshend Acts, uniting people from all classes
• The Boston Massacre in 1770 resulted in the deaths of 4 colonists, further enraging the colonists
• The Boston Tea Party in 1773 involved the dumping of 45 tons of British tea into the Boston harbor, worth around $2 million today
• In response, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts, which closed down the Boston Harbor
• Colonial leaders spread news of the Intolerable Acts rapidly, and many colonists began arming themselves in militias to protect against British tyranny