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The French and Indian War led to massive debt for the British crown towards the Bank of England. The various acts (Stamp Act, Tea Act and Townsend Act) were aimed at paying back those debts and this is how tensions were triggered. -
In addition, an uprising on the Ohio frontier - Pontiac's Rebellion - led to the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade colonial settlement west of the Allegany Mountains. This would lead to conflicts with land-hungry settlers and land speculators like George Washington. -
The passage and enforcement of the Sugar Act increased the colonists' concerns about their rights as British citizens and the intent of the British Parliament to more directly rule the colonies. These concerns also fed the growing resistance movement that became the American Revolution. -
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later, the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British.
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The Boston Massacre had a major impact on relations between Britain and the American colonists. It further incensed colonists already weary of British rule and unfair taxation and roused them to fight for independence. What started as a minor fight became a turning point in the beginnings of the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre helped spark the colonists' desire for American independence, while the dead rioters became martyrs for liberty. -
By allowing the East India Company to sell tea directly in the American colonies, the Tea Act cut out colonial merchants, and the prominent and influential colonial merchants reacted with anger. -
The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn't take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence. -
Colonists resented the end of “salutary neglect,” the curtailment of self-government, and inability to set taxation policy (“no taxation without representation”) Colonial confrontations (Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party) exacerbated tensions. -
The tensions between the colonies and Great Britain led to armed conflict in 1775. The First Continental Congress demanded certain rights from Great Britain. Delegates stopped trade with Britain and alerted the colonial militia to prepare for war.
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It was written by the colonists to ask the king to protect their rights and to tell him they wanted peace.
