The first of these taxes, the Stamp Act, was instituted in 1765. This legislation was followed by the Townshend Acts (1767) and the Tea Act (1773).
These taxes were not welcome in America. The colonists were willing to tolerate Parliament regulating their trade, but prior to this new foray into the colonies' affairs, Britain had stood on the sidelines in most other areas. For decades the colonists had made decisions about taxes and other issues in their own local assemblies.
Disgruntled colonists protested Parliament's actions, claiming that as English citizens they should be protected from "taxation without representation." In other words, since the colonies did not have voting representatives in the British government, Parliament had no right to tax the colonists. While the British eventually repealed some of these acts, they never questioned their right to impose taxes on the colonists. England sent soldiers to America to help ensure that the tax laws were enforced.
The arrival of British soldiers aggravated tensions in the colonies. United in their anger against the British government, the colonists sent a list of grievances to the king and formed colonial militias, although they still hoped that Britain's government would reconsider its position and grant the colonists the right they felt they deserved as English citizens: freedom from taxation without representation.
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