Why Americans Began To Resist Britain?

11 Pages 2674 Words

Americans, had raised the specter of an arbitrary British Government collecting taxes in America to support red-coated Regulars who might be used not to protect the frontiers but to suppress American liberties. Placing Massachusetts under military rule gave that specter some substance and led
directly to armed revolt.
When George III came to the throne in 1760 scarcely anyone in England or America foresaw independence for thirteen of the British colonies in North America. Colonists were proud of their affiliation with Great Britain and satisfied with the prosperity they enjoyed as part of Britain's commercial empire. Only in retrospect do the irritations that arose in the course of Britain's management of its vast empire appear to point toward revolution.
From the seventeenth century on, colonists bridled under the governance of royal officials sent to protect the Crown's interests in North America. The policies themselves were not at issue, since for the most part they harmonized well enough with the colonists' interests. The colonists worried more about bureaucratic avarice. They suspected that the officials, whether governors, customs officers, or surveyors of the woods, pursued their personal interests under the guise of enforcing royal policy. It seemed all too likely that fees, taxes, and fines collected in the name of the king would end up in the pockets of the officials rather than the royal treasury. These suspicions persisted throughout the eighteenth century, but against this ever-present danger the colonists erected a "hedge" to keep them, as they said, "from the wild Beasts of the field." The hedge was the right of their local legislatures to pass laws, raise taxes, authorize military operations, and audit accounts, free from official intimidation. The colonists' success in establishing the rights of their legislative assemblies, always in the face of complaints of their obstinacy, gave a measure of confidence that their...