British Colonies Dbq

The conflict between Britain and her colonies was mainly economic in origin due to acts imposed by the Britain as well as the idea of mercantilism.
Back then, Britain practiced mercantilism- in which a country's wealth was measured in the amount of gold and silver it possessed. Thus meaning, the colonies existed to support the mother country economically by importing and exporting goods to and from Britain. As Documents 3 states, "the colonies are generally restricted in all their foreign trade", because all goods from the colonies were "reserved for the British realm". This proved to be a problem as while the British economy flourished, the colonies were stifled. It furthered into conflict when Britain decides to impose controversial act onto the colonies. One act was the

Sugar act and Townshend Act which imposed taxes on sugar and tea respectively, were despised by colonists (especially the Townshend) as they were common household items and further stirred conflict as to why colonists had to pay taxes. Other unfavorable acts includes quartering act where colonists must have soldiers stay at their house or the writs of assistance which is the past version of a search warrant. The later caused heated arguments as showed in Document 1, it “places the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer.” Britain justified these actions as a way to help repay the debt caused by the French and Indian war, colonists believed that under the right of an Englishman "that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally or by their representative (Document 2)". In other words, no Taxation without representation. In addition, while acknowledging that Britain can order them to "pay what taxes she pleases" (Document 4), colonists argued that that taxes for the purpose of raising revenue, rather