Separation from England and Declaration of Independence

England had always been the mother country to the 13 colonies but at the end of the Seven Years’ war, the colonies decided it was time to break away from England. During the war, England neglected the 13 colonies and they were left to rule themselves. The colonies got a chance to govern themselves and when England came back to govern the colonies, the colonies finally decided that they didn’t want to be governed by England.

During the war, England was too busy trying to expand their territory that they ignored the colonies, this is now known as salutary neglect.

By ignoring the colonies, the colonists started to have freedom and do what they could to survive since England wasn’t supporting them. The colonies traded with other countries and it became part of their life, they made a living off of these products. They were still supporting England in the war with providing raw materials and money for the war. It was until England came back from war asking for more that led the colonies to become independent.

After the Seven Years’ war, or the French and Indian war, was over, England was left in a large amount of debt from all of the warfare. England then decided that in order to pay off all of the debt that they should tax the colonists. These taxes put in place were called acts.  The taxes were so overpriced for little things that the colonists needed in their daily lives. One of the taxes that were placed on the colonists was the Tea Act, which was one of the last acts imposed on the colonists. The Tea Act was a tax boosted the revenue for the East India Company which allowed them to overprice the tea for the Americans and take advantage of them. This caused one of the more well known rebellions, The Boston Tea Party. Due to the overprice of the tea, a bunch of colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians and board onto a ship that contained tea and dump everything into the ocean. Everything on board was worth a lot of money and caused the colonists to be punished by England. This was just one of the multiple taxes imposed on the colonists. The taxes were put in place so England could pay their debt but the colonies weren’t open to paying the taxes because in their opinion, they had helped already so generously helped England in the war. The colonists then started boycotting a lot of the products that they were taxing but England still managed to tax more things which only angered the colonists more.

The colonists finally decided that they wanted to become independent when England continuously taxed the them without the colonists having any representation in government. The colonists believed that it was unfair that they were getting taxed if they didn’t have anyone in the government to stand up and speak for the colonies. The colonists insisted, “no taxation without representation.” This caused the colonists to meet in secrecy and make a new government. Since the colonists didn’t have any representation in government they declared that they wanted to be independent in the Declaration of Independence.

Due to everything that happened between 1763 and 1775, the colonies decided that they could no longer be under the rule of England and declared independence. The colonies decided that they could rule themselves, like they did during the Seven Years’ war, and didn’t have to pay the taxes anymore. When they had enough, they declared independence and started to work towards a world of freedom as we know it today.

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