How did the French and Indian War help bring about the American Revolution?
1 Answer
The war debt led Britain to raise taxes on the American Colonies, which they were not terribly happy about.
Explanation:
The French and Indian War was a name for the North American part of the Seven Years War between France and Britain (among many, many others). In North America, Britain, relying on significant help from the Iroquois, defeated the French by setting up a blockade. As a result, the French gave up all their North American holdings, most of it going to Britain, and the rest to Spain.
During the war, the colonists had been staunchly British. In fact, it was during this war that George Washington's military career began (when he was humiliated at Fort Necessity). The colonists believed that by defeating the French, they would be able to expand further West. However, soon after the war ended, the British passed the Proclamation of 1763, which designated western borders on the colonies, with the intention of preserving an "Indian State."
This immediately upset wealthy colonists, particularly land speculators, who had entered into the French & Indian War primarily to profit by gaining new land. To rub salt in the wound, British Parliament felt that the colonies had been the primary beneficiaries of the war, and began to raise taxes to help pay off the war debts. They began by taxing sugar and molasses, which was resisted by some boycotts.
What followed over the next ten years was a series of attempts by the British to institute a working tax, followed by Colonial attempts to evade them.
Britain became increasingly frustrated that the colonies were not behaving as a colony should: submissive to the mother country. Likewise, the colonists became frustrated that British Parliament would not hear their concerns or allow them delegates in Parliament ("no taxation without representation"). Eventually, this led to violence, some tea getting dumped out, an angry King George III, and then the Revolutionary War.
