The French and Indian War

In the 1750's, France and Britain were fighting in Europe. The war expanded to the Americas. British clolonies wanted to take over french land in North America. They also wanted to take over the fur trade in the french territory. The french had moved into territories that the british had already claimed. In 1754, major George Washington was sent by Virginia's govenor to evict the french from fort Duquesne. Washington came upon a french scouting party and ordered his men to open fire. Washington's men killed 12 frenchmen and wounded 22. The war was on. During the first two years of the war the french and the indians became allies and defeated the british in various ocations. The tide of the war changed in 1756 when William Pitt became the secretary of state. The british applied new resources into the battle of north america and slowly started to capture french forts. In 1759, the british won the battle of the Plains of Abraham, which allowed them to capture Quebec. The next year they captured Montreal and thus completed the capture of Canada, effectively ending the war in north america. The war officially ended on February 10, 1763, with the signing of the treaty of Paris. France officially ceded all of its holdings in North America, west of the Mississipi. The cost of the war and of controling the newly aquired territory was high. The british looked to the colonies to help pay those costs. That began the long spiral events that led to the revolution.

“No taxation without representation"

“No taxation without representation" was a phrase that english colonists used in the mid - 1700's in a way to protest against the English Parliament for imposing taxes on them. The 7 year war had doubled the national debt in England. As England was in need for money they decided to impose new taxes on the colonies in the Americas. People were aguinst this taxes, as they had no representatives in the British Parliament, and they said they had no idea how was life in the colonies. At the same time, people in England argued that colonies should pay more taxes as the war was fought near their territory, in America.

This taxation without representation was what gave start to The America Revolution. People went to the streets and protested against this taxes such as the "Stamp Act", that was going to make people pay for every written thing they bought. They thought the parliament wanted to take away their liberty. Protests continued to intensify, as colonial leader made panflets and distributed them around. Colonies rejected other taxes such as taxes on tea imports. Parliament didnt like this, and send on troops to the americas, though colonies responded sending out their own.

The protests were not for the amount of money that was asked, but against the parliament for imposing taxes with the colonies having no representation in the Parliament.

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