The Sugar,Quartering and Stamps Acts

Colonial Merchants grow rich from trade 1764-The new prime minister George Grenville propose to rise money by colecting taxes on duties that already existed.

Grenville and the Sugar Act

Because the French and Indian War had left Britain with an empty pocketbook, Parliament also desperately needed to restock the Treasury. Led by Grenville, Parliament levied heavier taxes on British subjects, especially the colonists. First, in 1764, Grenville’s government passed the Sugar Act, which placed a tax on sugar imported from the West Indies. The Sugar Act represented a significant change in policy: whereas previous colonial taxes had been levied to support local British officials, the tax on sugar was enacted solely to refill Parliament’s empty Treasury.

Function

The Molasses Act and Sugar Act were intended to help the competitiveness of West Indies molasses and sugar in the New England colonies. These products cost the West Indies much more to produce than in most other markets. The West Indies, being a major trading partner of Britain at the time, requested Parliament help prevent the American colonies from buying cheaper molasses and sugar.

Enforcement

Northern colonists were more afraid of the methods that Great Britain took to enforce the Sugar Act than the actual cost of the tax itself. The British Navy began patrolling the shipping lanes to the colonies and customs agents became more aggressive in collecting import duties. The Southern colonies could produce most of their own crops and only viewed this as another annoying regulation.

Protest

While the colonies did not approve of the legislation, most of the outrage came from Virginia. The Virginia House of Burgess, a precursor to Congress, took upon itself the duty to respond to the King and express the colonies' displeasure with the tax. Protests were only ordered if the King refused to hear the colonists' complaints about the right to freedom from British taxation.

Effects

The Sugar Act did not actually cause as much protest as some people are led to believe. Attempts to protest the British government could not garner enough steam as only a few of the 13 colonies were detrimentally affected. Protests and public outrage would start with the passage of the Stamp Act, which placed a $1 million tax on paper products, the following year.

In 1765 parlament pass another unpopular law Quartering Act:
Which required residents of some colonies to feed and house British soldiers serving in America. These acts outraged colonists, who believed the taxes and regulations were unfair. Many also questioned why the British army needed to remain in North America when the French and Pontiac had already been defeated.  In addition to providing housing for troops, communities were also required to provide food and drink, and they would not be compensated. In communities where supplies were limited, this was a major source of friction, as people resented being forced to turn food and drink over to soldiers. Some communities, notably in New York, refused to abide by the terms of the Quartering Act. The law expired in 1767. With growing unrest in the Colonies and concerns that the Colonial public was getting out of control, a second Quartering Act was passed in 1774. This act only addressed the issue of housing, not including mandates to provide food and drink. Some Colonists viewed this as an invitation to open insurrection, classifying it among the “Intolerable Acts” passed by the British government in retribution for Colonial protests and uprisings.

In March 1765 parlament has another bill,the Stamp Act,it was to raise money from the clonies,the stamp Act require colonist to pay tax of almost everything that was printed material.

Many of these items were paper goods, such as legal documents and licenses, newspapers, leaflets, and even playing cards.The act declared that those who failed to pay the tax would be punished by the vice-admiralty courts without a trial by jury.

 Instituted in November, 1765. Every newspaper, pamphlet, and other public and legal document had to have a Stamp, or British seal, on it. The Stamp, of course, cost money. The colonists didn't think they should have to pay for something they had been doing for free for many years, and they responded in force, with demonstrations and even with a diplomatic body called the Stamp Act Congress, which delivered its answer to the Crown. Seeing the hostile reaction in the colonies, the British government repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766 but at the same time passed the Declaratory Act, which said that Great Britain was superior (and boss of) the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." The Stamp Act gave the colonists a target for their rage. Indeed, the Sons of Liberty was formed in response to this Act. The Stamp Act Congress also gave the colonists a model for the Continental Congress.

The French and Indian War "The Seven Years War"

A long and brutal battle between two European superpowers, France and England, for control of the upper Ohio River valley. Fort Duquesne, guardian of the gateway to the west, was renamed Fort Pitt and within two years would become England's mightiest fortification in America. Although the bloody struggle for domination in the New World would not come to an end until the British victory on Quebec's Plains of Abraham and the total defeat of New France, the wheels had been set in motion for the colonies' fight for independence.

The French and Indian War was precipitated through a series of altercations over rights to land in the Upper Ohio Valley. In April 1754, a force of French and Indians traveling down the Allegheny River, with orders from the governor-general of New France to claim this prized territory for France, encountered a small garrison at the forks of the Ohio. This was a strategic location for both the French, who sought unfettered access between their North American settlements on the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, and the British who craved fresh territory for their colonies' expansion. Both coveted the lucrative fur trade with the Indians beyond the Allegheny Mountains. The garrison in question was Fort Prince George, established some months earlier by the young Colonel George Washington while scouting for Virginia's Ohio Land Company. Declaring the area "extremely well-situated for a fort, having command of both rivers," Washington established a British settlement that would eventually develop into the city of Pittsburgh.

Fort Prince George was an unimposing trading post surrounded by a stockade, but it undoubtedly served as an obstacle to the French. Overpowered, the occupants surrendered and were permitted to vacate the fort with their tools and arms intact. The French then set about building their own massive fortification that they named Fort DuQuesne in honor of their governor-general. From this vantage point, they held sway over the Ohio Valley. However, their supremacy would be short-lived.

Tensions escalated as the British returned time and again trying to reclaim the site. Under George Washington's command, a small force engaged and defeated a scouting party of French and Indians near Fort Duquesne. Unable to proceed against the superior French forces in the fort, Washington erected Fort Necessity at nearby Great Meadows. Within a few months, the French countered and the assault forced Washington to surrender Fort Necessity and return to Virginia. This was the first major battle in the French and Indian War. Washington would return the following year, in July 1755, as a volunteer aide-de-camp for General Braddock to again attempt to rouse the French from Fort Duquesne. The battle proved a disaster for the British troops who were unaccustomed to the terrain, the weather, and the guerilla tactics of the Indians. General Braddock was killed in the melee but gave his name to the road his soldiers carved out of the western Pennsylvania wilderness.

On May 15, 1756, with official declaration of hostilities that extended far beyond Pennsylvania, the Seven Years' War began between France and England. Involving all the major European powers, it was the first global conflagration that engulfed all the territories colonized by the French and English from North America to Europe, the West Indies, Africa and India. But the principle struggle remained in North America, where events would not bode well for the English until the elder William Pitt came to power as British Prime Minister in 1756. By the end of 1757, with increased British resources, greater demands on the colonists, and the French facing national bankruptcy, the tide began to turn.
In the summer of 1758, General John Forbes commanded an expedition of nearly 7,000 men over the Alleghenies, carving out a highway that would later be known as Forbes Road. An advance column under Major James Grant made an unsuccessful attempt to take over Fort Duquesne. Aware that Grant's troops were closing in, the French and Indians rushed out from the fort to prevent their advance from the area that is now known as Grant Street in Pittsburgh. Discovering that the French were now in a much weaker position, General Forbes' immense force descended on the fort in mid-November. They met no resistance, as the French had already burned and abandoned Fort Duquesne, and fled on the rivers.

The years 1758-1759 also brought British victories in New France that culminated with the defeat of Quebec. On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain, ending hostilities abroad and signaling British domination in North America. By terms of the treaty, France ceded Canada and all its territory east of the Mississippi River to England, and Spain yielded Florida to England. The treaty signified the colonial and maritime supremacy of Great Britain. But that success would prove costly. The British Parliament's attempt to cover its overwhelming war debts and to pay for a continuing military presence in America by direct taxation of the colonists soon caused strained relations with the colonies and presaged the War of Independence.

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