Apush American Independence Dbq Essay

Jessica Pehush
Mr. Polanis

The French and Indian war that lasted from 1754-1763 proved to be a very expensive war. By the time of the French surrender and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 Britain was in considerable debt and began to compensate by increasing tax regimens on the colonies in America. The occurrence of the new levying of taxes created great distress between the colonies and Britain's already rocky relationship. The British began to become more and more involved and controlling of all the colonies affairs, and it ended salutary neglect of its colonies. Due to this new asserted control and later agitations, the colonists were ultimately driven away from reconciliation and towards rebellion and assertion of their independence

The act placed a considerable tax on all paper goods. At this time the colonies were not in the mindset of wanting to break away from the British crown. They would have rather reconciled with it. The colonists however did detest the new tax and they created a Resolution Of The Stamp Act Congress in 1765 in which they directly contacted the King himself to plead their case. The Colonists created a letter in which they sought to remove the taxation due to the fact that they had no representation in British parliament. (doc 1) However the response they were provided with was that they had valid representation because all of Britain's subjects are virtually represented in parliament. This didn't sit well with many of the colonists. They showed their anger by tarring and feathering British officers who enforced the taxation. Many letters such as the one written by John Dickenson were also passed around amongst the colonists urging the separation from parliament. (doc 3) He as well as many other colonists believed that without salutary neglect and if parliament was to be in full control, the Americas could never truly

Parliament created the declaratory act and then later the Townshend duties. The colonists despised these new implications and many overlooked the declaratory act and colonists boycotted, petitioned, and used news papers to attack the Townshend duties. This did not sit well back in Britain due to the colonists evident defiance of the crown. To collect the taxes that the colonist were supposed to be paying in Boston Britain sent in red coats to collect the crown's money. By the crown doing this the colonists banded together and began rioting. One thing lead to another and in 1770 the troops fired on the crowd as they feared for their lives, 5 colonists were killed and this tragic occurrence became marked down in history as the Boston Massacre. (doc 2) although this occurrence outraged the colonists they still weren’t looking to break away from the crown. However once the tea act was passed colonists were infuriated. A large group of colonists banded together, dressed up as native americans and went on to British ships containing tea and they threw the tea into the Boston harbor. This put the crown into debt and the Coercive/ Intolerable Acts were passed. The colonists once again wanted the act repealed and they boycotted British goods as well as formed the First Continental