Explain why the British government passed the laws that offended the Americans, identify those laws, show why Americans were offended, and describe American resistance to those laws.
Answer : The main reasons due to which government passed various laws that offended the Americans were economic. Prior to the American Revolution, England was engaged in French and Indian wars. As a result of which government of England came under huge debt. The British government believed that because the wars were fought to protect the colonies, it was the colonists that should pay the debt. They enacted stamp act.
Stamp act was passed in 1765. Americans find this tax to be unconstitutional because they believe that no freeman can be forced to pay the tax without his consent. English government does not have any right to impose, such type of Tax in USA. Addition to this, this act was imposed without representation and enforcement by courts without juries which is against the social contract. This act was also against the Great Charter. According the Americans the right to private property is a “natural right”. No government can take this right from the people of any nation. The stamp act is direct interfering in the “private property “of the American people.
Another act, which Americans find unconstitutional, was sugar act. This act is also known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies. This act had an adverse effect on the American traders. They opposed this act and demanded the British government to nullify the act.
