North America’s road to independence and civil rights
In
the Seven Years War against France (1756–63), England, though victorious,
incurred an enormous debt. Massive tax raises in the colonies were intended
to help pay this debt.
Resistance to these taxes led to the separation of the 13 British colonies in
America from the motherland. With the motto “no taxation without representation”,
the colonies contested the right of the British rulers to levy taxes on them
without their being represented in the London House of Commons.
