Ryan Miller
Active member
Context
Every since European colonial powers have colonized the American continent, they began to compete against each other for control. Control over the American continent. To speed things up, in 1756, the 7 Years War broke out and the British Empire saw itself at war with its rivals, France and Spain. The 7 Years War has many names, but in North America, the British really wanted to control the fur trade in the regions that the French owned the land. Eventually, the British won and gained land from mostly the French.
However, with war comes huge war debt. The war was costly as it was fought all over the globe (there was a lot of fighting in Europe along with colonies of the colonial powers). In order to pay of the war debt, the British imposed taxes on American colonists living in North America. Some of the taxes that the British Parliament imposed were tea (Tea Act of 1773), stamps (Stamp Act of 1765), paint, lead, copper (Townshend Acts of 1767), and much more.
American colonists soon became angry with all of these taxes being put on them, mostly because they had no representation in Parliament. This would give the iconic phrase "No taxation without representation". This would eventually lead to the start of the American Revolutionary War.
Arguments
First, let's start off with why people would think that the British taxes on American colonists wasn't justified. For starters, the colonists had no representation in Parliament and thus had no voice to pass their own laws that would affect them. Keep in mind that these American colonists were still English citizens and thus should've had representation in Parliament. However, Parliament decided no instead and as a result enraged the colonists.
Another reason was that the American colonists shouldn't have to pay English wars, especially if it means having to raise taxes in the process. The British had no right to tax the American colonists so much. If they were going to tax the colonists, they shouldn't have taxed them on goods that the colonists had a high demand on such as paint, lead, and especially tea.
Last but not least for why the taxes weren't justified was because the British should've at least helped the American colonists on paying the war debt. The colonists shouldn't had done it alone and the taxes were probably too high. The British should've raised taxes on the British Isles as well instead of just increasing taxes on the colonists by a lot.
Arguments (Yes)
One of the reasons why people would think that the British taxes on colonists were justified was because even though if the colonists were aloud to be represented in Parliament, that probably wouldn't be enough to influence policies other wise. American colonists would probably only get around 15 seats in parliament compared to around 600 at the time.
Another one was that it was kinda ridiculous having to send representatives from one continent to the British Isles, especially if there is an ocean in the way. The distance between the British North American colonies was just too far away to keep sending representatives from the colonies to Parliament. It would take a lot of time to do so and thus was seen as unnecessary.
Lastly, the taxes were justified because the colonists had much lower taxes than that back in the British Isles. In the colonies, the colonists would pay 2 shillings for a stamp while in the British Isles, they would be paying around 26 shillings just for the same stamp. Therefor, if would only be fair to tax the American colonists more just to help pay for the war debt that they gained from the 7 Years War.
Conclusion
So, after hearing the arguments, what do you think? Do you think that the British taxes on American colonists were justified or not? Why or why not?
