Don Wildman

The British crown considers its steep war debt incurred in this battle for the control of North America, and they want to make that back.

They need to pay that debt off.

As a side point, before we get into this, I want to just point out, by the 1770s, this time period, we've got a population of about 2.5 million colonists up and down the eastern seaboard.

Very significant when you consider about 8 million people live in Great Britain, England, Wales, and Scotland together.

The empire worldwide, about 12 to 13 million.

So our 2.5 million people is important.

This is a large slice of the pie.

And it's an obvious revenue source for the kingdom and a solution.

So this is what we're talking about.

The crown will pay off its debts by taking it from the colonists who do not appreciate this at all.

There was the policy that had been followed, this independent policy of letting the colonists do what they did, make their money, create their new land for England.

And then suddenly this independence was gone.

Let's review these taxes.

The Stamp Act of 1765, tax on printed materials, newspapers, legal documents, followed a few years later, Townsend Acts, 1767.

That's more specific to domestic items like glass, paint, tea.

And these were enforced by British forces sent to occupy Boston.

It all led to the Boston Massacre, then the Tea Act in 1773, which of course leads to the Boston Tea Party.

These raises in taxes cause discontent among the colonists, especially the Tea Act launches the Sons of Liberty's action.

That's the Boston Tea Party.

It's a back and forth in New England all this period of time, which really redefined the relationship between the colonies and the crown.