Why did colonists want to break away from Great Britain?

There were several reasons why the colonists wanted to break away from Great Britain. One reason is that the colonists believed that the British were violating their rights by requiring the colonists to pay the taxes created by the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. The colonists believed that they should have had representatives in Parliament that could speak about and vote on the proposed taxes. Since they didn’t have representatives in Parliament, they felt their rights were being violated.

Another cause is that the colonists believed that the British were trying to control them. When the British passed the Proclamation of 1763, the colonists believed the British were trying to prevent them from getting the land that the British had received from France as a result of the French and Indian War. When the British passed the Quartering Act, which required the colonists to provide housing for the troops enforcing this unpopular law, they were even more upset. The colonists were also unhappy with the Tea Act. This law gave the British East India Company a monopoly on the trade of tea.

When events turned violent in the 1770s, more colonists began to think they needed to be free from British rule. In the Boston Massacre, five colonists were killed when British soldiers fired into a crowd of protesters. After the Boston Tea Party, the British passed the Intolerable Acts. These laws punished the colonists, especially those in Massachusetts, for the Boston Tea Party. After fighting occurred at Lexington and at Concord in April 1775, it appeared only a matter of time before the colonists would declare their independence from Great Britain.