British Colonies Dbq

From the 1600’s up until the early 1700’s, the British Colonies were in a state of salutary neglect. Thereafter, the British executed the Navigation Acts, though loosely enforced, they were created in order to regulate trade between the Colonies and the mother country. The relationship between Britain and it’s colonies was a civil one up until it was greatly reformed with the events of the French and Indian War. The war significantly affected the economic, political, and economic relationship between the colonies and the mother country, the British want for control and their restrictions left the colonies seeing their mother country in a different light. In addition to the events over the course of the war, the economic aftermath of the war’s debts also left the colonies to suffer the British need of revenue.
In some cases, colonists were ecstatic and praised the British with their protection of the colonies in their time of need, such example is of Reverend Thomas Barnard’s sermon, “Here shall our indulgent Mother, who has most generously rescued and protected us”, this shows that the some colonists had newly gained respect for the mother country. This opinion however, was not the majority view. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the British gained much land to the north and west (Doc. A). This land, that the colonies fought for was kept from them by Parliament with the proclamation of 1763. Not only were land restrictions imposed on the colonies but with the end of the war there was a great war debt. This meant that the British would have to implement taxes on the colonies in order to acquire the “large revenue“ (Doc. F). These taxes included the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, which were two of the biggest taxes that would cause the relationship between the colonies and Britain to be