Revolutionary War: The French And Indian War

The French and Indian War, part of the overarching global conflict that was the Seven Years War, began in 1754 and officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 . It was a large-scale conflict principally involving the French and British Empires, which took place in the central and northern areas of North America. The war was ostensibly fought over border conflicts between French and British colonists, the latter of which feared influence on their Western and Northern borders which could be used to incite conflict between the colonists and the local Native American tribes. Although the war was a success for the British, in that they claimed large swathes of previously French controlled territory, in the long run the destructive
Secondly, in order to appease their new subjects, the British adopted policies which forbade further settlement beyond the established colonies. This was especially important as continued (particularly African) immigration to the colonies began to put pressure on the local economies to expand agriculture and infrastructure to accommodate the increases in population. Ultimately the Revolution was a reaction to the increasing authoritarian nature of the British in the colonies, which the colonists felt unfairly impinged on freedoms that they often already held, and a dismissal of colonial sovereignty. This sentiment was echoed by John Adams to Jefferson in 1815 when he famously said, “What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was shed at
The Act, which aside from mandating that only stamped paper made in Britain was to be used on certain items (newspapers, legal documents, cards, ect.), proposed a direct tax on the colonies. The justification for this was that the badly bankrupted British needed to raise revenue to pay for troops stationed in the colonies. This idea was widely dismissed by the colonists however: having defeated the French, they felt there was no need to defend against foreign threats, and they could defend themselves against the natives as they always had. Large protests broke out everywhere which frequently turned violent, making the collection of the tax impossible. The act was repealed in March the following year, but the damage had already been wrought: The colonists were ideologically incensed at the British making decisions regarding their lives without any input from the colonists on the matter, which they felt contradicted their rights as Englishmen. The popular cry of the times was “no taxation without representation,” a statement which would go a long way to kindle solidarity within the 13 colonies. Indeed, literature produced at the time reflected the rapid shift in colonial identity. A letter which appeared in the Boston Gazzete in October called for