The first instance when a divergence between the colonies and their mother country became apparent was the Seven Years War. This war, in which Britain and the colonists fought the French and Native Americans, was clearly instigated by the colonists. Many of the colonists were voracious merchants who were focused on gaining land and goods. This greed led them to unjustifiably attempting to expand into land owned by the Native Americans and French. War became the only option for the colonists and the French, as the French could not continue to allow the atrocities of the British colonists to continue. Since the colonie

Another major event in the separation of the colonies, also occurring in Boston, was the Boston Tea Party. These actions were taken by the colonists in response to the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act gave a monopoly on the trade of tea with the colonies to the British East India Company. The East India Company was close to bankruptcy and the Tea Act was supposed to help the company gain funds. Even with the tax accounted for, they were able to offer tea to the colonists at a substantially cheaper price than the smugglers they were currently receiving their tea from. There was no downside for either side with the Tea Act. The colonists however, acted stubbornly and led on by the speech by Samuel Adams, would not accept the British tea that landed in the ports of Boston. They boarded the British vessels dressed as Native Americans and dumped all of the tea into the Atlantic. Over 90,000 pounds of tea was thrown overboard, which is about one million dollars by today’s standards. The colonies again, were costing Britain large sums of money.

To attempt to start paying off the considerable debt created by the war, Britain began directly taxing the colonies. This was the first time they placed a direct tax on the colonies as they had previously practiced salutary neglect, which was a policy of noninvolvement. It allowed the colonies to have a lot of freedom, but with the new circumstances, a different approach was necessary. Britain had to make up a two million dollar debt and since the taxes in England were already extremely high, they had to tax the colonies as well. They issued the Stamp Act and Townsend Acts of 1765. The taxes placed on the colonists were minimal and far less than the taxes they would have been paying had they remained in England. The colonies would have eventually been brought to debt regardless of taxation. The colonies were unprepared to handle the large amount of land they had just received from the war and they needed Britain’s help. The main complaint about the taxation is that the colonists had no representation in Parliament. This ar

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