POLS 1402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Townshend Acts, Quartering Acts, First Continental Congress
Document Summary
The american revolution started because of many reasons -- most having to do with. The british were in major debt, so parliament decided that they needed to tax the colonists heavily in order to pay it back. In order to tax these colonists, parliament implemented many different acts. One of the first acts was the stamp act, which taxed the colonists on printed items. This act set the colonists off, because they felt that it was unconstitutional to make the colonists pay british debt, so they protested it. Parliament repealed this act, because of all the commotion that it caused, but then fired back with a statement -- the declaratory act. These words alone gave parliament the power to make laws for the colonists and have complete power over them. One year later, the townshend acts were released by parliament. This put taxes on many different british goods (tea, paint, glass, etc ).
