Subjects:
design, but the situation in America was anything but favorable to change.
Long accustomed to a large measure of independence, the colonies were
demanding more, not less, freedom, particularly now that the French menace
had been eliminated. To put a new system into effect, and to tighten control,
Parliament had to contend with colonists trained in self-government and
impatient with interference. One of the first things that British attempted was
the organization of the interior. The conquest of Canada and of the Ohio
Valley necessitated policies that would not alienate the French and Indian
inhabitants. But here the Crown came into conflict with the interests of the
colonies. Fast increasing in population, and needing more land for settlement,
various colonies claimed the right to extend their boundaries as far west as
the Mississippi River. The British government, fearing that settlers migrating
. . .
In May, in Virginia, Patrick Henry presents seven Virginia Resolutions to the
House of Burgesses claiming that only the Virginia assembly can legally tax
Virginia residents, saying, "If this be treason, make the most of it. To
enforce the Sugar Act, customs officials were ordered to show more energy
and effectiveness. The American
Revolutionary War was a complex event that belies a simplistic nationalist
view. From the colonies' point of view,
it was impossible to consider themselves represented in Parliament unless
they actually elected members to the House of Commons. In
Boston, enforcement of the new regulations provoked violence. More serious in its
repercussions was the new financial policy of the British government, which
needed more money to support its growing empire. On June 8, the Massachusetts Assembly invited all the
colonies to appoint delegates to the so-called Stamp Act Congress in New
York, held in October 1765, to consider appeals for relief from the king and
Parliament. A
colonial embargo on "English tea" continued but was not too scrupulously
observed. THE
COERCIVE ACTS Parliament responded with new laws that the colonists
called the "Coercive or Intolerable Acts. This act
increases the duties on imported sugar and other items such as textiles,
coffee, wines and indigo (dye). The Townshend Acts were designed to
raise revenue to be used in part to support colonial governors, judges,
customs officers and the British army in America. Prosperity was increasing and most colonial leaders were willing to
let the future take care of itself. They feared that at any time in the future, the principle of
parliamentary rule might be applied with devastating effect on all colonial
liberties. From Massachusetts to
South Carolina, the act was nullified, and mobs, forcing luckless customs
agents to resign their offices, destroyed the hated stamps.
Essay's Topics
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