For many
generations, most English colonists in North America were happy to be subjects of the British
Crown. Even in the years leading to independence, many never dreamed of separating from the
mother country. However, there were a number of changes in British policy beginning in the 1760s
that finally pushed many to fight for independence.
After the French and
Indian War, the British government started changing its overall policy towards the way it ran
its colonies. Previously they had ruled with a rather hands-off approach. The powers in London
were content to let the colonies essentially function on their own. The colonists, for their
part, liked this arrangement. They saw themselves as free English subjects who were privileged
to live in a land far enough away from London to conduct their lives as independent people but
under the overall protection of the Crown.
However, after the French defeat
in 1763, the British authorities felt that the colonists needed to pay their part for
a...
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