Basically, the American colonies rebelled against Great Britain because they felt that changes in the imperial relationship that took place after the French and Indian War represented an attack on their liberties. After the war, which was very expensive (if also very successful) for the British, they attempted several measures that angered the colonists. The Proclamation of 1763, for examples, outraged both ordinary farmers and large land speculators by forbidding settlement in lands west of...
Basically, the American colonies rebelled against Great Britain because they felt that changes in the imperial relationship that took place after the French and Indian War represented an attack on their liberties. After the war, which was very expensive (if also very successful) for the British, they attempted several measures that angered the colonists. The Proclamation of 1763, for examples, outraged both ordinary farmers and large land speculators by forbidding settlement in lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Stamp Act, which placed a small tax on legal documents, outraged colonists who argued that direct taxes on individuals were a violation of the principle of representative government. A series of duties on imported goods were equally unpopular, and the British government angered Bostonians in particular by stationing a large body of troops there. The Tea Act, which granted a monopoly on tea to the British East India Company, angered colonial merchants, and the "Boston Tea Party" in response led to the "Intolerable Acts" that were viewed throughout the colonies as a measure worthy of serious resistance. Overall, the colonists viewed each of these events as a "long train of abuses," to quote the Declaration of Independence, and they worried that without colonial resistance, they would become second-class subjects within the British Empire. Their efforts at resistance, and British responses, led to the outbreak of armed conflict by the spring of 1775.
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