The situation in England had changed as well. In the year seventeen-seven, the nation became officially known as Great Britain. Its king no longer controlled Parliament as he had in the early sixteen hundreds. Then, the king decided all major questions, especially those concerning the colonies. But power had moved from the king to the Parliament. It was the legislature that decided major questions by the time of the French and Indian War, especially the power to tax. The parliaments in the colonies began to believe that they too should have this power of taxation.
The first English settlers in America considered themselves citizens of England. They had made a dangerous trip across the ocean to create a little England in a new place, to trade with the mother country and to spread their religion. By seventeen sixty-three, however, the colonists thought of themselves as Americans. Many of their families had been in North America for fifty to one hundred years. They had cleared the land, built homes, fought Indians and made lives for themselves far away from Britain. They had different everyday concerns than the people in Britain. Their way of life was different, too. They did not want anyone else to tell them how to govern themselves.
The people in Britain, however, still believed that the purpose of a colony was to serve the mother country. The government treated British citizens in the colonies differently from those at home. It demanded special taxes from the colonists. It also ordered them to feed British troops and let them live in their houses. Britain claimed that the soldiers were in the colonies to protect the people. But the people asked, "Prtect us from whom?"
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25