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What happened to the British economic policies for the colonies in 1763?

The year of 1763 was a very significant year for the British and their colonies in North America. The British had just won the French and Indian War, and they got control over most of North America east of the Mississippi River. The British were becoming more concerned about the growing costs of the running the colonies, and they decided the colonists should share in some of these costs.


Thus, the British began to develop...

The year of 1763 was a very significant year for the British and their colonies in North America. The British had just won the French and Indian War, and they got control over most of North America east of the Mississippi River. The British were becoming more concerned about the growing costs of the running the colonies, and they decided the colonists should share in some of these costs.


Thus, the British began to develop policies that impacted the colonists economically. The Proclamation of 1763 was passed to keep the colonists from moving to the new land the British received from France. The British were concerned there would be attacks by the Native Americans. The British required the colonists to provide the housing for the troops that were enforcing this law. The British believed the colonists were benefitting from the British protection and should share in some of the costs associated with that protection.


New tax laws were passed in the 1760s to generate more revenue. The Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts placed taxes on various items. The colonists objected to these taxes because they didn’t have representatives in Parliament that could speak about and vote on the tax laws. The British also tried to crack down on smuggling by making writs of assistance legal. The British, who had been lax in enforcing their own laws, began to crack down on smugglers because their actions were hurting the British economically.


These events and other that followed later eventually pushed the colonists and the British toward war. That war began when the colonists issued the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

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