The Colonies and Great Britain

Summarize this: The Colonies on Their Own For more than a century, relations between the colonies and Great Britain were peaceful. The colonists developed their political institutions without much interference. The colonists were British subjects. As in other parts of the British Empire, the colonies were supposed to serve as a source of raw materials and a market for British goods. In the eyes of the British crown, the American colonies existed only to increase Great Britain’s enormous wealth.
In practice, the colonies in America were left to grow, expand, and live without much interference. The colonies were more than 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Great Britain. News from America and orders from the monarch took two months or more to travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this great distance, only the governors of the colonies and the colonial legislatures were able to deal with the everyday problems facing the colonies. As a result, the colonists became accustomed to governing themselves. Until the mid-1700s, the British government was generally satisfied with this political and economic arrangement

Summarize this:

Britain Tightens Control
Two events changed the relationship between the colonies and Britain: the French and Indian War and the crowning of King George Ill.

The French and Indian War started as a struggle between the French and British over lands in what is now western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Many Native American tribes sided with the French and fought with them against British troops led by George Washington. By 1756, several other European countries had become involved. Great Britain won the war in 1763 and gained complete control of the eastern third of the continent, essentially eliminating French power in North America.

The war was very expensive and Britain was left with a huge debt. The British believed the colonists had a duty to pay that debt because they were defending the colonies from the French. To defend against Indian rebellions after the war, Britain also maintained a standing army in the colonies. This was also a financial strain on the British.

Summarize this:

Taxing the Colonies

George Ill became king in 1760. To help pay for the war, the king and his ministers collected taxes on tea, sugar, glass, paper, and other products. The Stamp Act of 1765 imposed the first direct tax on the colonists. It required them to pay a tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, and even dice and playing cards. The British Parliament also passed laws regulating colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies.

Britain’s revenue–the money a government collects from taxes or other sources-from the colonies increased. The colonists’ anger over increasing taxes grew also. Political protests began to spread throughout the colonies, and many colonists refused to buy British goods. The protests led to the repeal of the Stamp Act. However, the British passed other tax laws and regulations to replace the Stamp Act. These new tax laws were called the Townshend Acts. The situation reached a boiling point in 1773. To protest high taxes, a group of colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. This protest became known as the Boston Tea Party. In retaliation, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One of these acts closed Boston Harbor. Another of the Coercive Acts withdrew the Massachusetts colony’s right to govern itself. By the early 1770s, the colonists were ready to be free of British rule.

Summarize this:

Taking Action

In 1765 nine colonies sent delegates to a meeting organized to protest the Stamp Act and King George’s actions. The delegates sent a petition, or plea, to the king. It argued that only colonial legislatures could levy direct taxes like the Stamp Tax.

By 1773, colonists opposed to British rules were forming organizations to communicate with each other and to urge resistance to the British. These groups, called committees of correspondence, sprung up quickly. Within a few months after Samuel Adams formed the first committee in Boston, there were more than 80 of these committees in Massachusetts alone. Virginia and other colonies soon joined this communication network. The committees of correspondence were led by prominent members like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

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