Free
In the centuries after Christopher Columbus first reached America, European governments competed to build empires around the world.
An empire is a group of countries under a single authority. The British controlled slave-trading “castles” (forts where enslaved people were held) and colonies in areas as far apart as Africa, the Caribbean, and what is now Canada. They took natural resources from these places to make goods. Then they made money by selling and trading the goods. Britain, Spain, the Netherlands (Holland), Sweden, and France all established colonies in North America.
▲ Britain and France hoped to expand their empires. In May 1754, French troops encountered a small armed party of Virginians in the disputed Ohio Valley lands. They were fighting on behalf of the British and being led by a young George Washington. The French forced the Virginians back from the Ohio River. That fight became the first battle of a decade of conflict. This included the so-called Seven Years’ War, which actually lasted from 1754 until 1763 in America, and Pontiac’s War (1763–1764), between the British, the French, and Ohio Valley Indians. The war was for control of what is now the Midwest, and with it, power to shape the future development of the continent. Many Native American groups fought for the French, but Iroquois League members sided with the British, helping them eventually to win the war.
◀ In 1763, the British won the nine-year North American part of the Seven Years’ War, known as the French and Indian War. The struggle left Britain with huge debts. To help pay for the war and for the expense of governing the colonies, King George III and the British Parliament decided to tax the colonies. A tax is money that people must pay to support a government. Although British troops had fought to protect the colonists from the French and Native Americans, the taxes angered many colonists.
▲ In 1765, parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act forced colonists to buy special stamps for all kinds of documents. These included wills, diplomas, and newspapers. The colonists protested. Many stopped buying goods that needed stamps. Many boycotted goods imported from Britain, They were trying to hurt the British economy and force parliament to change its policy.
◀ Fearing that Britain was losing control of the colonies, in 1768 parliament moved 1,000 British soldiers to Boston. This increased tensions. In 1770, a crowd of colonists argued with British soldiers, throwing ice balls at them. The soldiers became nervous and fired on the crowd, killing five people. Rebellious colonists spread the news, saying the event was a massacre. Later, it was called the Boston Massacre.
Anger over the Stamp Act united many colonists in opposing parliament’s attempt to find new areas of taxation. Some joined the Sons of Liberty, whose members took both peaceful and violent action. For example, they rallied mobs to burn down the houses of tax collectors. This British political cartoon shows a tax collector in tar and feathers being forced to drink tea, a product taxed by the British. One year after passage of the Stamp Act, parliament repealed it. ▶
▲ Many colonists called the taxes unfair because they raised money from the colonies. But the colonies had no representatives in parliament. Without representatives, colonists had no way to influence laws created by the British government that affected their lives. The colonists complained of “taxation without representation.” That became a rallying cry. And it was one of the main reasons that colonists came into conflict with Britain during the 1700s. Above, a mob riots against a governor who was loyal to the British.
