In the early days of exploration, Great Britain or as it was called then “England”, was not interested in establishing a presence in the New World. But after the war with Spain ended in 1604, parliament decided that England needed to expand into the new lands. Many reasons factored into this decision. Mainly pressure from interest groups like the Gent

During the 1750’s, colonists wanted to expand and start settling in the Ohio Valley, which was occupied by the French. This caused the Seven Years War between the British and French. The outcome of this war had a huge impact on the colonies and their relationship with Great Britain. First of all, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 was signed and France lost all of its mainland colonies. So all of the land east of the Mississippi River was open to settling until the Proclamation of 1763 went into effect and prevented the settling of the new lands. This caused a lot of resentment toward the British and to show the colonies that they were in control, they sent their troops over to enforce the Proclamation of 1763. But the British found that they needed money to pay for these troops and issued the Stamp Act, which put a tax on all paper products in the colonies. This led to the Sons of Liberty, whose actions actually got the Stamp Act repealed and brought up the issue of virtual representation. The colonists felt as if they should not be taxed because they had no representation in the British parliament. But the British insisted that they were virtually represented by all elected officials, which was just another scheme to get money from the colonies.

After the discovery of tobacco, many other settlements began to come about in New England and around Virginia. The new settlements economies differed somewhat from Virginia’s, but all had a steady income. The New England settlements were especially different because it was too cold to grow tobacco, so other products like iron, rum and cider were made to replace it. This economic stability worried the English because they felt they were losing control of their colonies. They believed in a mercantilist system, which saw two main sources of national strength: wealth and military power, and without control of the colonies the English had neither. So in 1660 and 1663, the Navigation Acts were introduced. Under the Navigation Acts, England banned all trade with the colonies except in colonial or English built ships. The acts also required that certain colonial products and imported European goods be taken to England first. This created a middleman in England who rec

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