The Big Cheese wrote:
Colonial america was getting taxed to shit, we had no say in it. "No taxation without representation", so the colonies rebelled. Won the Revolutionary War, we celebrate that today.
Not really taxed to shit, as, at the worst, we were being taxed less than British citizens.
The biggest problem was that Britain ignored us for 2 generations, and without any strong commanding governors looking after the colonies, the colonies themselves organized their own representative groups to keep things functioning. They collected taxes for improvements at the local level, and everyone was pop flyin'. Britain only started getting involved in the colonial politics after The French & Indian War (Or Seven Year's War to those in Europe). They felt like they had neglected us (they had) and felt they needed to enforce the laws they had always put on us (like no smuggling and buying products only from them (which was enforced about as well as as putting a sign out to tell people to not steal the candy in the bowl). Also, because this was the first war Britain fought in the New World, and largely for the benefit of the colonials, there was a great pressure from "British citizens" to have the colonials pay for at least part of the debt off. Imports were taxed, but the taxes were minor to ease the colonials into paying for it. Like most things, some people threw a fit over "sudden taxation", and these were largely the business owners (because someone living out in the woods probably isn't going to need to mail things, or get legal documents or whatever), so basically the wealthy were being taxed and they didn't like that because it hurt business. This spawned a large back and forth that led to repeals in taxes, new taxes, and playing political hardball, all while colonials kept saying that as British citizens, they should have a right to be represented in parliament rather than "spoken for" by people who had never even been to the New World. Eventually, the Boston Tea Party (basically a bunch of drunks throwing tea in the harbor to say "fuck you" to the establishment) and the Boston Massacre happened (basically, drunks were hassling British officers in Boston, throwing Snow, rocks, glass, and wood at them, and one of the officers accidentally fired their gun and Crispus Atticus was killed. The ensuing chaos wound up with a few more injured and dead, but wasn't really a massacre in any form of the word.) and ol' King George decided that the colonials were being unreasonable and the only way to solve this was by crushing the opposition. Boston Harbor was shut down and Boston was basically under military rule until George Washington took it back in a decisive victory for the Colonials during the Revolutionary War. Because of these harsh actions and the lack of a dialogue, the Colonial leaders gathered together and proclaimed to Britain that we were a separate nation now through the Declaration of Independence, which was signed on July 4th 1776. Britain was furious and thought that they could have a decisive victory against the ragtag team of misfits we had for an army. However, a bunch of shit happened and they basically gave up because of rising costs of war (after not having the French & Indian War paid back yet), public perception of embarrassing military defeats, and worries about France making a move in Europe after helping back us in the war.
So fuck yeah, Murika!
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