The French and Indian war happened because of the hatred between the French and English and because of the competition for land. Most of the war occurred in America and troubled the colonists greatly. They didn’t like having the British soldiers all over their country and having to deal with them everywhere. The relationship between Britain and its American colonies was dramatically altered after the French and Indian war because of the conclusion of the British salutary neglect and the new acts and policies England enforced on them.
The American colonies began changing their opinions of the British after the French and Indian war when parliament took control. Parliament passed several laws and enforced numerous taxes, such as the Sugar act, which put a tax on sugar, wine and other goods, the Quartering act, which let British soldiers stay in the homes of the colonists and they had to feed and pay for them, then there was the Stamp act, which was most important because it effected every single colonist by imposing a tax on almost all printed documents in the colonies. This was done because of how much debt England was in after the French and Indian war. Colonists were enraged because they were so accustomed to the long period of salutary neglect and felt it unfair that England interfered with their lives in this way.
Another factor that caused the British and their American colonies relations to change was their interference with the economics of the colonies. Prime Minister George Grenville reinforced the Navigation acts from the 1660’s, which forced colonists to only trade with England and said that all goods going from Europe to the colonies must pass through England so they can be taxed. The Navigation acts had been around for about a century but they had never been fully implemented until after the French and Indian war. The colonists were completely unaccustomed to being controlled by England so harshly.
American colonists were sick of being treated so terribly by the British with all the new taxes and rules they had to follow, they started to have severe animosity towards England. Many colonists would protest, many smuggled goods, and just defied the acts claiming that Britain does not have the power to implement such laws on them. There were also fights that would break out between the British redcoats and the American colonists, the most important one being the Boston Massacre during which five people died because of the aversion between the redcoats and colonists. Eventually all of these intense skirmishes lead to a revolutionary war between America and England.
The French and Indian war brought the colonies together as they found a common enemy. It made them realize that England could not rule over them anymore and they could do something about it. The French and Indian war turned people who were once loyal British subjects into anti-British protestors struggling for independence.
