Why Did The British Dbq Essay

After the French and Indian war the Americans were used to being neglected because the british needed all the troops they could get to fight the seven years. The Americans had experienced salutary neglect for so long that when the British came back the Americans did not like it. The British taxed the Americans with the sugar act and the intolerable acts without the representation deserved. This marked the beginning of the American Revolution. When the British came back to the colonies they had to have a way to pay off their war debt. The British started to limit trade to only the mother country. This allowed Britain to make money off of the colonies, this was called mercantilism. When the king could not make enough money off of that he turned to taxes. His first act was called the Sugar Act. This act put taxes on sugar and the main drink in the colonies was tea. People were furious they had to pay taxes on sugar and molasses.(doc 2)
A group of Americans got together and created the sons of liberty. The sons of liberty would later on dump tea over board a British ship in 1773. They started boycotting sugar and they also started riots. They sent the British parliament 50 letters and due to colonist overwhelming anger and Britain losing money they eventually repealed the sugar act and passed more acts.
After the Boston tea party the British passed what was called the intolerable acts. This acts punished the colonist and made them pay for the tea they destroyed (doc 4). The British thought that this was the final straw and the colonist would finally listen. This drove the British to keep putting pressure on the colonist and made them eventually just explode. When the British kept on with these acts they pushed the colonist to their breaking point and since the British were already making so much money it was clear King George just got greedy. (doc