Britain had won an Empire but its victory led conflict directly with the American colonies, because

even before
the war with France, colonists were searching a better land and started to move over the Appalachian
Mountains into the Ohio valley and to prevent a a war with the Amerindian tribes, the English King, George III,
issued a proclamation in 1763 forbidding the
colonists to settle west of the Appalachian
until proper treaties had been made with the
Amerindians. This proclamations angered
the colonists, especially after the British
government told them they had to pay new
taxes on imports of sugar, coffee, textiles
and other goods and that they had to feed
and house the soldiers.
The colonists objected. Some merchants
believed that the new import taxes would
make it more difficult for them to trade at a
profit. Other colonists believed that the
taxes would raise their costs of living. And
also feared that if the troops stayed in
America they would have to obey the British
government by force. It became of one the
traditions in American political-life; people
should not allow government to became to
powerful.
In 1765 the British parliament passed
another new law called “The Stamp Act”
which was intended to raise money to pay for the defense of the colonists. It said that the colonists had to buy
special tax stamps and attach them to newspapers, licenses and legal papers such as wills and mortgages.
“No taxation without representation” became the colonists’ demand. Since the settlement of Virginia, Americans
had claimed the right to elect representatives who would decide the taxes they paid and now they insisted that
as “freeborn Englishmen” they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies and since they didn’t have
any representatives in the British Parliament, they didn’t need to pay taxes for them.
So, representatives of nine colonies met in New York and formed the “Stamp Act Congress”, organizing
opposition to the Stamp Act, that is, all over the colonies merchants and shopkeepers refused to sell British
goods until the Act was withdrawn.
In Boston and other cities angry mobs attacked government officials selling the stamp and most colonists
simply refused to use them. All of this
forced the British government to withdraw
the Stamp Act, but they didn’t give up so
easily and had to find a way to show the
colonists that the government had the
right to tax them so they created another
new law called “Declaratory Act”.
The Declaratory Act stated that the British
government had full power and authority
over the colonists and people in America
in all cases whatsoever. In 1767, they
placed new taxes on tea, paper paint and
other goods that the colonies imported
from abroad. The colonists one more
time, refused to pay the taxes and chaos
broke out in Boston and soldiers were
sent to keep order. And it was not until
1770 that the British government
removed all the duties except for the one
on tea, that was the less trouble.
Decided to keep the quarrel going, in December 1773, a group of colonists disguised themselves as Mohawk
Amerindian and boarded British merchant ships in Boston harbor. They threw 342 cases of tea in the sea in
protest.
In reply to this “Boston Tea Party”, the British passed a set of new laws to punish Massachusetts, which soon
started to be called by the colonists as the “Intolerable Acts”. Boston harbor was closed to all trade, until they
paid the tea threw on the sea. More soldiers were sent to keep the order and the powers of the colonial
assembly of Massachusetts were greatly reduced.

Questions:

1.What was the proclamation King George III issued? What did the colonists did?
2. What was the “Stamp Act”? Explain with your own words.
3. What was the “Stamp Act Congress” and what impact did it cause in the British government?
4. What was the “Declaratory Act”?
5. What was the “Boston Tea Party”?