Solutions to Problems Faced by British Government after the French and Indian War
Verified
Added on 2023/06/15
|4
|689
|149
AI Summary
This history essay discusses the problems faced by the British government after the French and Indian War and proposes solutions to them. The essay covers issues related to western land acquisition, regulations of trade, and financial problems.
Contribute Materials
Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your
documents today.
Running head: HISTORY ESSAY History Essay Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
1HISTORY ESSAY Introduction The French and Indian War or the Seven Years’ War, as it is popularly known in history, started in 1756 and continued until 1763. The main conflicting coalitions were the Kingdom of Great Britain on one hand and the Kingdom of France on the other hand. The war was mainly fought over the acquisition of the American territories, which included Canada and major parts of India. The British coalition won the war and forced France to accept a peace treaty, whereby the former got the right of the American colonies to the north of Florida and east of Mississippi, West Indies and India (Marston). Problems faced by British Government: Solutions and Feasibility Western Land Acquisition The primary problem faced by the British government was that of the acquisition of several lands, including that of the Ohio Valley and several other Western territories, due to the presence of disputes in their claims. There were conflicts of claims between the colonial speculators and the British agents of lands. The government also had to make crucial decisions regarding partitions of the lands for sale, hunting and farming. To solve these issues, the government proposed to station British troops in those colonies for developing defense against the French people. They also proposed to allow the settlers to move to west without providing them defense against the hostile Native Americans (Schumann and Schweizer). Although these proposed solutions seemed appropriate, however the stationing of British troops was deemed as a breach of liberty of the colonists, which questioned the validity of such solutions.
2HISTORY ESSAY Regulations of Trade The mercantile laws of British trade were expected to be abided by the colonists, however, breaching of such laws were frequent among them and they embarked in unfair practices of smuggling, which hampered the revenue generation of the British government massively. The possible solutions of the British government were to pass stronger laws, which implied elimination of jury trial or need for search warrants. Another possible solution was to repeal the regulations and allow continuation of smuggling. Both the solutions had their pros and cons. Whereas the withdrawal of regulations had the chance of decreasing the revenue of British government even more, the stricter enforcement of the same would have compromised the sense of freedom of the colonists considerably (Corbett). Financial Problems Post war one of the massive problems faced by the British government was that of the huge burden of debt and the immense cost of maintaining British soldiers in the colonies to combat the American colonists. The colonists had to bear only one twentieth of the total taxes of the British and when the amount was tried to be increased the cider riots happened. The government proposed to resolve this by increasing taxes on the residents of England and also by forcing the colonists to pay equal amount of taxes and by taxing the commodities of daily usage of the same (Baugh and Baugh). These solutions, although seemed to be effective in tax collection, however, had the risk of sacrificing the economic welfare of the colonists extensively, thereby having negative implications on their welfare and economic liberty.
3HISTORY ESSAY References Baugh, Daniel, and Daniel A. Baugh.The global Seven Years War 1754-1763: Britain and France in a great power contest. Routledge, 2014. Corbett, Julian Stafford.England in the Seven Years War–: A Study in Combined Strategy. Vol. 1. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2012. Marston, Daniel.The Seven Years' War. Routledge, 2013. Schumann, Matt, and Karl W. Schweizer.The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History. Routledge, 2012.