The+Imperial+Crisis+and+Resistance+to+Britain

 After the Treaty of Paris of 1763 was established, Britain had finally reached a state of internal peace. For once the country was not at war with another country. Alas, the British were faced with a different kind of enemy. They were faced with all the expenses of the war. This debt caused the government to reevaluate their situation. With a new king in the throne, King George III, there were many aspects of the government that were changing. (Just a side note, King George III was a young, naïve, immature king that also suffered from partial insanity at times.) King George reestablished the parliament through briberies and favors to try and increase the power of the royal family. (This unfair balance is one of the several factors that eventually lead to future problems with the colonies.) King George III also appointed a new prime minister, Lord Grenville. Grenville felt that the colonists have had it too easy for too long. English citizens that lived in England had to pay two-thirds more in taxes then the English citizens that lived in the new world colonies. The nobles and people of authority in England felt that the colonists should take more responsibilities for “their” war.
 * The Imperial Crisis & Resistance to Britain ** 

  With Grenville’s new ideas, and other members of parliament on board, they decided to tax and get moreinvolved in the colonies that had for so long been thriving in a period of “salutary neglect”. At first the British established the Proclamation of 1763, which really did absolutely nothing. Then the Quartering Act was passed, where the soldiers were forced to live with the colonists. This started to kindle the tensions. The colonists did not like the idea of being forced to do anything, however this example did not affect everyone. The Sugar Act of 1764 was also passed, which was to tighten control on the trade in the colonies and avoid illegal shipping as well as taxing products of sugar. Another act, the Currency Act of 1764 discontinued the use of paper money in the colonies, and they were forced to exchange their money with English currency, which in turn made the colonists poorer. What pushed the colonists off the deep end was the Stamp Act of 1765. It wasn’t a large tax, but it affected all walks of life.

 Just the idea of being forced to pay a tax without any representation only so the mother country could make some money bothered the colonists. England was making ten times more revenue then before, however the colonists did not like “taxation without representation”. Eventually tensions would lead to physical skirmishes, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party. These events were then used as propaganda to get more people into the mindset of rebellion (which was, at the time, that of a minority). 

 John Locke was an enlightenment thinker, one that many colonists favored based on his ideas. They also liked actual representation vs. the virtual representation that was in place at the time. Groups of people in the colonies meet at the Continental Congress to discuss the next few moves towards independence. Once the first shots were heard around the world at Lexington and Concord, the strive for a free nation had officially begun.