Words: 535
The primary reason for retaining such a large force was that demoralizing the army would put 1,500 officers, many of whom were well-connected in Parliament, out of work. Stationing 10,000 troops to separate Indians and frontiersmen was one role. The outbreak in May 1763 of Pontiac Rebellion, an Indian uprising against the British expansion, reinforced the logic of this decision (Stamp Act). George Greenville became the prime minister in April Of 1763. He knew that he would have to find a way to pay for this large peacetime army.
Raising taxes in Britain was out of the question, since there had been virulent protests in England against the 1 763 cider tax. The Greenville ministry therefore decided that Parliament would raise this revenue by taxing the American colonists without their consent. Parliament had previously passed measures to regulate trade in the colonies, but it had never before directly taxed the colonies to raise revenue (Stamp Act). The first tax in Greensville program to raise a revenue in America was the Sugar Act that was passed on April 5, 1764.
American colonists initially objected to the Sugar Act for economic reasons, but before long they recognized that there were constitutional issues involved. The British Constitution guaranteed that British subjects could not be taxed without their consent, which came in the form of representation in Parliament. The colonists elected no members of Parliament, and so for Parliament to tax them was seen as a violation of the British Constitution (Stamp Act). Following the Sugar Act, The Stamp Act was passed by Parliament on March 22, 1765.
Because of its potential wide application to the colonial economy, the Stamp Act was judged by the colonists to be a more dangerous assault on their rights than the Sugar Act was. While the colonial sculptures were acting, protests began taking place in the streets. It was during this time of street demonstrations that the well known group, the Sons of Liberty was formed. Groups identifying themselves as Sons of Liberty existed in almost every colony (Stamp Act).
The British government had gotten the impression that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or “internal”) tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or “external”) taxes, such as taxes on imports. With this in mind, the Townsend Act was passed in 1767 that placed new duties n paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea that were imported into the colonies. These were items that were not produced in North America and that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain (Townsend Acts).
This act proved to be short lived and by 1 770 most of the Townsend taxes were repealed, but that on tea was retained. Colonists were still opposed to the tax on tea, which resulted in the return of tea back to Britain. In Charleston, the colonists even left the tea on the docks to rot. Things would eventually culminate and on December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to turn three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor (Boston).