First, Parliamentary taxation prompted the Americans to rebel the most. The Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Duties were the primary taxes …show more content…
Most, if not all, of the colonists who moved to the colonies were looking for freedom and a new start of life. Americans were extremely angry when the British took these rights away. As an effect of the French and Indian War, Britain enforced their control over the colonies by enforcing the Navigation Acts. Once the navigation acts were enforced, the Americans were furious because they felt this move was stifling their economic growth and preventing them from making more money. Also, Britain shut down Boston 's port, reduced their powers of self-government, and permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or England for crimes they had been accused of in the Intolerable or Coercive acts of 1774. The Intolerable acts were a result of the Boston Tea Party, which was a result of the Tea Act of 1773 (an act that gave the East India Co. an exclusive monopoly on tea thus eliminating the middleman, colonial merchants). The Quartering Act or Mutiny Act of 1765 forced colonists to provide food and shelter for the British troops. The troops were stationed in Massachusetts to protect the colonists from French and Indian attacks and also defend the frontiers. The colonists believed this invaded their privacy and also hurt their rights because the colonists did not have any choice but to accept the soldiers into their home. They didn 't have a choice because the New York assembly had been …show more content…
After the Townshend Duties were repealed (except for the tax on tea), colonists in Boston harassed the new board of customs commissioners to the point where the British government had to place four British troops inside the city. The British soldiers competed with colonists in many things, such as jobs. In 1770, a mob of dockworkers began to throw rocks at the guards at the customs house. Captain Thomas Preston lined up his men in front of the building for protection. In the confusion, five men were killed, among them Crispus Attucks. Colonists considered the Boston Massacre a symbol of British oppression and brutality. Americans were trying to expand and the oppression from the British angered them. Three years later, in 1773, colonists in Massachusetts protested against the British in the Boston Tea Party by dumping tea overboard. This was a result of the Tea Act. The Tea Act enraged merchants because they were cut out of the deal, meaning the company sold the tea directly to the colonists without a middleman (colonial merchants). When the British were informed about the Boston Tea Party, Lord North punished Boston by enforcing the Coercive Acts. The Coercive Acts closed the port of Boston, allowed trials to be transferred to other countries, amended the state charter, and quartered British troops in Boston at the colonists ' expense. This angered the colonists because they had to