American Colonies Dbq
The colonists in the early 18th century felt closer to their homeland of England than they did to their neighboring colonies. It wasn’t until after the French and Indian War that the colonies started to feel unified in a way. Then with the addition of harsh tax acts and policies the colonists started to question being a part of the British Empire. These acts without the colonist’s consent started to stir up ideas about actually becoming an independent nation and revolting against their English rulers. The French and Indian War had both positive and negative effects on the colonists themselves. After the war the colonies felt closer together than they ever have before and for the first time they felt closer to the neighboring colonies than
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It wasn’t until the Stamp act of 1765 that Americans started to have financial difficulties, this act affected almost all of the colonists since it placed a tax on all printed documents. The stamp act however was different from previous tax acts, although other acts raised some income for the British government that was never their main purpose. The stamp act’s main purpose was to raise income and to help alleviate some of the economic troubles caused by previous wars. What made the colonist most agitated was that they had no say in the making of the act since they were not represented properly in parliament. The colonists tried to appeal the law with answers such as the Virginia Resolves but parliament eventually passed the Declaratory Act, which reassured the fact that parliament had full control over the colonists in all situations. After the Declaratory Act, parliament continued to bombard the colonists with unjust laws, one large program of laws was called the Townshend Program. This program reinforced laws already put in place that the colonists refused to obey and also created new ones. The acts and laws put in place by Townshend, except for the tea tax, were eventually appealed by Britain to end the colonists’ boycotts. But this program got the colonists starting to think about a revolution, especially after an over exaggerated event known as the Boston Massacre. The colonists tried to spread and keep the resistance strong mostly through the writing and talking of colonists in the colonies. The last acts to finally push the Americans into revolting were known as the Coercive Acts, also known as the intolerable Acts to most of the colonists. It created numerous boycotts around the colonies and was the final piece of unjust laws enforced by the
It wasn’t until the Stamp act of 1765 that Americans started to have financial difficulties, this act affected almost all of the colonists since it placed a tax on all printed documents. The stamp act however was different from previous tax acts, although other acts raised some income for the British government that was never their main purpose. The stamp act’s main purpose was to raise income and to help alleviate some of the economic troubles caused by previous wars. What made the colonist most agitated was that they had no say in the making of the act since they were not represented properly in parliament. The colonists tried to appeal the law with answers such as the Virginia Resolves but parliament eventually passed the Declaratory Act, which reassured the fact that parliament had full control over the colonists in all situations. After the Declaratory Act, parliament continued to bombard the colonists with unjust laws, one large program of laws was called the Townshend Program. This program reinforced laws already put in place that the colonists refused to obey and also created new ones. The acts and laws put in place by Townshend, except for the tea tax, were eventually appealed by Britain to end the colonists’ boycotts. But this program got the colonists starting to think about a revolution, especially after an over exaggerated event known as the Boston Massacre. The colonists tried to spread and keep the resistance strong mostly through the writing and talking of colonists in the colonies. The last acts to finally push the Americans into revolting were known as the Coercive Acts, also known as the intolerable Acts to most of the colonists. It created numerous boycotts around the colonies and was the final piece of unjust laws enforced by the