During the early seventeenth century migrants from Britain, France and Spain settled along the Atlantic Seaboard of North America, and in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The British, however, establishe

The ‘Townshend Act’ or ‘Townshend Duties’ were introduced in 1767 and saw taxes being placed by the British onto numerous imports into New England. The Townshend Duties were seen by the American colonists as being, essentially, a revamped Stamp Act imposed by the British only upon exports to New England and no other part of the Empire. The general American feeling was that they were “obliged by the laws to take from Great Britain, any special duties imposed on their exportation to us only, with intention to raise revenue from us only, are as much taxes, upon us, as those imposed by the Stamp Act…” . However, like the Stamp Act, the Townshend Duties were repealed later in 1767 after much protest from the American colonists. The seemingly trivial items that were nominated for said taxation were things such as paints, glass, lead, paper and tea.

The ‘Quartering Act’ of 1767 was passed by the British Parliament. This law was a means of looking after the British troops whom were stationed in American colonies and it called for “each colonial assembly [to contribute] appropriate money to house the troops and supply their needs” . Of the thirteen colonies, New York was the most boisterous in expressing its dislike of the Quartering Act and the New York assembly blatantly refused to contribute funds towards the British troops. The British Parliament did not like this refusal and so an act was passed forbidding the New York assembly from doing anything else until the money was contributed to the Quartering Act. Along with the Quartering Act came more debate and discussions about the recently repealed Stamp Act. This raised the interests of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend. The Chancellor made the suggestion to the British Parliament that, unlike the Stamp Act that went beyond the ports and harbours of New England, a new way of raising revenue, or rather a reversion to an old way of raising revenue, in the colonies would be to tax certain items upon their arrival in colonial ports and harbours.

On the 5th of March, 1770, British troops shot, and consequently killed, five members of a rioting crowd in Boston, the then largest colony of New England. This supposed riot was resultant of the ascending hostility between the British and the American colonists and this event, known as the ‘Boston Massacre’ was at the time seen as the highest point of the strained relationship between the Motherland and New England. These strains grew stronger with the ‘Boston Tea Party’; an act of open disobedience by the American colonists of the British taxes on the importation of tea. Entir

Some topics in this essay:
Stamp Act, Years’ War, Tea Party’, Townshend Duties, British Parliament, Independence American, North American, Navigation System, Quartering Act, Britain France, american colonists, stamp act, seven years’ war, years’ war, seven years’, quartering act, war independence, british troops, sugar act, british parliament, american war, american war independence, mid eighteenth century, american colonists british, british troops stationed,