Preludes of the american indpendence war
1. Taxes
Preludes:
-french and indian war (1754-1763), Britain and the colonists fought againt
France
-Britain won all the land east of the Mississippi River
-Britain was in debt, because costs had been huge
-soon Anglo-American interdependence were disrupted after the war, British
feared that the bond between Britain and its colonies could be undermined
The Sugar Act:
-british parliament and prime minister Greenville decided that colonies should
pay for their protection against enemies (western or native)
-Greenville drew up some resoutions with new duties for the colonies
-became known as sugar act, because one of the resolutions dealt with a new
duty for molasses(sugar)
Tensions in the colonies:
-Sugar Act caused alarm in the american colonies, because of the expected
economic disadvantages
-added to this was a post-war depression and another act of prohibiting paper
money as legal tender (colonies were not allowed to print their own money)
-altogether the factors caused a lot of oppositional activities (f.e. threat of
boycot of british products)
-rumor of new taxes added to the growing tension
-British misjudged the atmosphere in the american colonies
The Stamp Act:
-tax for paper, including newspaper
-in form of a stamp>"Stamp Act"
Resistance in the colonies:
-strong and violent opposition against the implented Stamp Act
-almost all assemblies changed the british tax-right
-boycot of english products was prepared
-after one year of protest and debating, the Stamp Act was withdrawn
-Parliament failed to notice the changes in the complex relationship between "mother
and child"
-one year later all the trouble started again after after new duties for the
colonies (Townshend Duties) were drawn up
Colonies tried to get representants in the parliament
-representants were not accepted by the british
-colonists kept on demonstrating > leeds into the following events (Boston
Tea Party, Boston Massacre)
