The Colonies decided to break from Britain for several proposed reasons. These reasons are proposed because we aren"t exactly sure what happened at that time, we weren"t there. Therefore, there is extreme difficulty in explaining this phenomenon.

             Despite the growing tension between Britain and its colonies, they still maintained strong bonds. The colonists needed the British to defend them from their enemies. The British paid for the overseas navy used in defending them. The Colonists and the British both spoke English, tying the two together greatly. Both the Colonists and the British profited from trading goods across the Atlantic Ocean In addition, wealthy land owners in the colonies sent their children to Oxford University in England. Surely, the colonists were not "chomping at the bit" to break away from British rule.

             The first major change in attitude was after the French and Indian War that ended in 1763. This war strained the relationship between Britain and the colonies. Unwelcome British troops had remained in the colonies. The colonists were forced by the Quartering acts to house and feed the lingering British troops. They each walked away from the war with ideas about the other. The British viewed the colonists as unreliable, undisciplined, and not militarily trained. On contrast, the Colonists viewed the British as vulnerable, having their uniforms too visible. In addition, with the French gone from North America, the colonists didn"t need the British to protect them as much. The war also resulted in a huge financial debt among the British government, one that the colonists must share in paying for.

             Unable to fund any more frontier wars between land hungry colonists and Indians, the British imposed a Proclamation Line, prohibiting the colonists to take land away from the Indians. The British decide to tax the colonists to enforce this new line. Colonists, already in a financial recession, were infuriated by this new act.