For the one hundred and fifty years subsequent to the foundation and establishment of the English speaking colonies of North America the settlers were still quite content and largely self governed. By the mid eighteenth century the population of British America was flourishing, and had risen to approximately one and-a-half million people across thirteen colonies. The standards for living in these colonies were amongst the very finest and highest in the world. The British defeat of France in the Seven Years" War in 1763, however, soon saw many changes occurring in the colonies. The costs of war and the colonists" unwillingness to contribute to these costs encouraged the tightening of British imperial control. Many new laws were passed and introduced by the British into the colonies, such as the Sugar Act of 1764, the Stamp Act of 1765, the Quartering Act of 1767, the Townshend Act of 1767, and the Tea Act of 1770. These various Acts were very large contributors to the outbreak, or "need" for the American War of Independence. .
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, established a string of colonies along this stretch of coast, the population of which growing to approximately one million settlers and African slaves. The colonies produced timber, tobacco for export, food and fish along with the colonies that were established in the West Indies, whom produced sugar. Also, the flourishing colonial merchant fleet dominated the trade across the Atlantic. The French settlers, however, had made alliances with the North American natives and established with them the trading of furs and foods. This helped the French to establish an arc of territories west of the British colonies, which would inhibit the British from expanding. .
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The 1760's saw the settlers of the British colonies grow in population, wealth and they were starting to separate themselves, per se, from the British Motherland.
