Taxes, the Cause of Revolution

martes, 4 de mayo de 2010

The 7 years of war had doubled the British National debt. They started realizing that Colonist payed less taxes than them so they started imposing some laws, which were basically the causes of the Revolution:

Sugar Act
It all started when George Granville, prime minister that enforced the navigation laws created the Sugar Act on April 5, 1764. The main objective for the Sugar Act was raising money by basically enforcing law on all colonists. The British placed a tax on sugar, wine, and other important things. The British did this because they wanted more money. The British wanted this money to help provide more security for the colonies. The security was expensive because of the Indians and fights. The British also hoped that the act would force colonists to sell their goods to Britain as opposed to selling to other countries.

Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was passed by the British Parliament on 1765 and this was a very simple act actually. It wasn’t that different from all of the other acts but this one wasn’t all about taxes or money the only thing is that this act had the requirement that certain colonies needed to provide food and shelter or home for British soldiers in the colonies.

Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was approved or passed by the British Parliament on 1765 it was basically established to raise some money for military but also because British thought that many printed materials in the colonies must be produced on stamped paper produced in London.

Townshend Act
The Townshend act was passed by the British government in the year of 1767 and it is named like that because of the person that proposed the act. He was named Charles Townshend. The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise money in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges.

Tea Act:
Cause of the Boston Tea Party. It was passed on May 10, 1773. It permited the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the Colonists, this caused a fall in colony tea.