NM+Colonial+Justification

The Americans were justified in declaring and fighting for their independence for many reasons. These reasons included the sudden control the King had over the colonies and the unjust taxes imposed on the colonies. Up until the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, the British government had maintained a hands off approach to controlling the colonies otherwise known as Salutary Neglect. This method of controlling the colonies gave the colonists a false sense of freedom which they enjoyed by creating their own laws, practicing whatever religions they wanted to, and taxing themselves as they saw fit. However, when the war ended, Britain needed money and to make this money they looked to their thriving colonies and decided to take control to tap into the money. All of the sudden, all the freedoms the colonists had previously enjoyed was gone and they now had to answer to the King. This angered many colonists because they believed that they had earned their freedom from being under direct control of the British government. They were still proud to be English, but they just believed that they should not be governed by a monarch who is an ocean away. This was one of the reasons the colonists were justified in declaring their independence because their sense of freedom was taken away and they wanted it back. In order to get money from the colonies, the British government imposed many harsh taxes on the colonies. The taxes would not have been so opposed to by the colonists if they had had any representation so then they had a say in if they were taxed but since they did not they were angered by this. Most of these taxes were indirect taxes which caused some grumblings about the government but then the first direct tax was passed and caused uproar. This tax was the Stamp Act which stated that on every legal document there needed to be a stamp on it to make it official and this affected every single citizen which made it even worse. The next major taxes were the Townshend Acts which taxed ports for various imports and the Tea Act which taxed tea which was a very popular drink. There was resistance to these taxes including a boycott from English goods and the Boston Tea Party. As a result of the Boston Tea Party, British Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which closed the Port of Boston until the damages for the destroyed tea is repaid. This is known as the Port Bill and enraged the colonists in Boston because the port was the jewel of the colonies and was very important to the economy of the colonies. This justifies the colonists declaring freedom because they were unfairly taxed and their freedoms were taken away so their only choice was to secede from Britain.