The American Revolution had its beginnings in the french and indian war. For seven years, Britian battled the french and indian nations in the colonies. After winning the war, Britian had a huge debt to pay. To pay these expenses, George Grenville, who was secretary of Treasury in England, came up with a plan. He reasoned that the debt should be payed by taxing the colonies because the war had been fought to protect their land (the ohio river valley). Englanfd then took steps to tax the colonists and cut spending for the colonies anyway possible. The first such act was the proclamation of 1763. This said that the colonists could not cross the appalachian mountains for hunting or farming. This was done to cut the area britian had to guard with soldiers. The colonists, however, took this as a way of controlling them and making them subserviant to England. The rest of the causes will depend on this idea: Perception is more important than reality. Even though Britian was only trying to save money to pay their debt, the colonist had the perception that Britian was trying to starve them and prevent them from growing economically. Britian followed with a series of taxes on certain items. The first was the sugar act. The real protest began with the passing of the second tax, the stamp act. This enraged the colonists into forming protests groups between the states called the stamp act congress. This was the first time all the states began to work together for a common goal. This would prove to be an important beginning. The british parliament repealed the stamp act after the protests. England then passed a tax on sugar, tea, plastics, and other things called the townshend duties. The people in America again protested, and the british repealed the act except for the duty on tea. The colonists did not care because most of them drank smuggled tea anyway. The trouble began when britian granted a monopoly to the britsih east india company to sell tea to the colonies.