Relationship Between Britain And The American Colonies example essay topic

The Seven Years War proved to be a crossroads in the history of British colonial rule in America. Britain was victorious, but after defeating her French foes (along with their Indian allies), Britain was left to contemplate the ramifications of a war that would leave her relationship with her American colonies altered forever. This change would eventually lead to conflict between the colonies and Britain, and ultimately the Declaration of American Independence. In order to understand how the relationship between Britain and the American Colonies became so strained, we must first examine the nature of Britain's imperial authority.

Economic relations between the two entities were governed by Navigation Acts and trade Acts. These Acts existed for the express purpose of maximizing profits for Britain with regards to her colonies in North America. They served to completely control colonial trade, and in the process stifled some sectors of the colonial economy. To Britain's dismay, many colonists openly flouted these regulations during the Seven Years War, largely because of Britain's preoccupation with the ongoing hostilities. After the war it became clear the extent to which some colonists had openly flouted the Trade and Navigation Acts. This was doubly insulting for Britain because of the perceived sacrifices made by Britain during the war in terms of material and men, all spent to keep the colonies (and colonists) out of French hands.

The colonists, on the other hand, had become more economically prosperous and decidedly less dependant in the process. Self-reliance was a commodity that was little known in colonial America before the war, and now that the colonists had had a taste of it, they were understandably slow to relinquish it. The seeds of conflict had been planted. There was another by-product of the war for Britain; her national debt more than doubled during the course of the conflict. At a time when Britain was starting to bend beneath the weight of the debt, it was only a matter of time before parliament looked to the colonies to help shoulder some of the price incurred in their defense.

The Sugar and Stamp Acts were the first of many measures to tax the colonists. The Townshend Duties and the Tea Act would follow. While these measures outraged the colonists because of their monetary implications, it was the constitutional implications brought on by the Acts that were most offensive to the colonists. Until after the Seven Years War, the colonists had been left to essentially tax themselves.

Now the colonists had a rallying cry, as they deplored the idea of no taxation without representation. In 1765 the Stamp Act Congress was held, and in a bid of utter defiance the representatives agreed that the colonial legislative assemblies alone had the right to tax the colonies. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but only after agreeing to pass the Declaratory Act, which informed the colonies that Britain did in fact have the right to legislate for the colonies 'in all cases whatsoever'. It was the Townshend Duties and Tea Act (followed by the Coercive Act) that strained the relationship between Colonial America and Britain beyond repair. When the First Continental Congress met in 1774, the Congress demanded the repeal of the 1774 acts and moved to challenge parliament's right to legislate for the colonies.

War was soon to follow. The Second Continental Congress met in 1776 and issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4. During the course of the war, Britain experienced all of the problems inherent with fighting an overseas war. France joined the effort on the side of the Americans, and the British eventually recognized American independence in agreeing to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

There were many factors that hurled Britain and America into the American Revolutionary War and perpetuated colonial calls for a formal Declaration of Independence from Britain. Perhaps the first of those factors (and arguably the most important of them) was the status of British-colonial relations immediately following the Seven years war.