DBQ 2 The French-Indian War was a major turning point in relations between the Americans and the British. American colonists were generations removed from their British ancestry, and it showed on the battlefield. The Brits and Americans had different tactics and ideals during the war. These differences created bitterness between the Americans and British economically, theologically, and socially following the war due to the fact that the British controlled the colonies and could therefore tax them/tell them what to do.
If two countries hate each other, and one of the countries has control of the other one, problems are bound to arise, as they did between America and Britain following the French-Indian War. These problems would eventually lead to the American Revolution. Economic relationships between Americans and Brits soured following the French-Indian war due to the increased taxes on colonists that resulted from the high cost of the war.
According to document F, the tax revenues brought in from the colonies by the Brits was seen as insufficient after the French-Indian War (due to the “vast increase in territory and population” as seen in document A), and the British Order in Council suggested that they increase the taxes placed upon the colonies, for they were in fact growing. An example of these taxes included the Stamp Act, which placed taxes on many paper-oriented materials.
This was a hugely disliked tax by the colonists, as represented by Benjamin Franklin in document G and the newspaper headline in document H, and was indicative of the kinds of unfair taxes that the British imposed on the colonists after the French-Indian War. The effects of the French-Indian War also stirred up political disagreements between the British and Americans.
The previous policy of British rule over the colonies was Salutary Neglect, meaning the British would let the colonies govern themselves as long as they maintained fair trade relations with the British. Following the war, however, strict trade laws called the Navigation Acts made it so that Americans had restricted trade with places other than Britain. The Navigation Acts were a response to the lack of revenue mentioned in document F, and created a colonialist feeling of resentment towards the British.
These feelings of resentment (in conjunction with many other feelings toward many other unfair acts that limited the prosperity of the colonies) led to the desire of a separate government, and ultimately the American Revolution. The ideological differences between colonists and the British were noticeably different during the French-Indian War. According to document D, which is a Massachusetts soldier’s diary, the American soldiers were seen as “little better than slaves to their [English] officers. American soldiers felt like they were Englishmen, but were denied the English liberties and rights that they felt they deserved. This was probably due to the fighting styles/other ideologies that differed and made the English feel superior to the colonists. These feelings shone through on the taxes placed upon the colonists and the various laws/acts passed that restricted colonial freedom.
Overall, the poor political, ideological, and economic relationships between Americans and British people after the year 1763 were caused by the French-Indian War. When Britain abused its powers over the colonies, there was a major retaliation – which really should have been expected due to the harbored resentment possessed by the Colonists towards the British. The French-Indian war magnified existing feelings between colonists and Englishmen, and also created bitter resentment, which led to restlessness and the American Revolution.