Financial Pressure on Great Britain

The Seven Years' War was a struggle between a British-led alliance and a French-led coalition that lasted from 1756 to 1763. Around the same period in America, the French and Indian War erupted, pitting British territories in America against New France, a region occupied by France.

There was little reason, if any, to think that the American colonies would one day stage a revolution to establish an independent nation-state before the conclusion of the Seven Years' War. The British military safeguarded the colonies from foreign invasion as part of the empire. In exchange, the colonists paid very minimal taxes and were free to participate in domestic economic activities without the British government interfering too much. For the most part, the colonists were merely expected to follow international trade restrictions. The Navigation Acts, which were approved by Parliament in the seventeenth century, mandated that all trade within the empire be done on ships built, owned, and staffed primarily by British nationals.

The French and Indian War, as well as the greater Seven Years' War, were both won by Britain. This, however, came at a significant cost and lead to Financial Pressure on Great Britain. The UK's national debt nearly doubled, rising from £74.6 million to £132.6 million. Interest payments on the debt accounted for more than half of the budget of the British government. In addition, Britain chose to station a 10,000-man standing army in America to supervise its recently acquired territory from France. Britain attempted to recover the cost of the standing army as well as reduce its financial load by imposing additional taxes upon the Thirteen Colonies in America, which sowed the roots of the major causes of the American Revolution between the two countries.