why is no taxation w/o representation an important event for leading colonists to the revolution? just a ques?

Question

i need this, a project i have is due tommorow and i ddnt start it and its reeeeeeeaaaally difficult. JUST PLEASE HELP ME...i dont know anything about it.

Answer 1

"No taxation without representation" would be more of a slogan than an event (it is credited to Reverend Jonathan Mayhew of Boston, if you're interested, but the principle dates back way before his time... see below). The 'events' would probably be the taxes and the protests themselves.

The concept behind it derives actually from old English custom (which arguably wasn't too fair either) which held that taxes could only be imposed by Parliament - a body which was made up of representatives from all areas.

Colonists, on the other hand, had no say in Parliament. And colonists felt that they should be treated as equal members of the British Empire. Logically, then, they should either be immune to taxation or given seats in governement.

Yet neither were they given seats nor were the taxes lifted. In many senses, they were made worse. When the Molasses Tax was proved hard to enforce, Britain instead passed a Sugar Tax which allowed officials to sieze whole cargoes of 'smugglers' who didn't pay the tax.

Stamp Taxes (which put a tax on any official document, newspaper, and even playing cards) proved almost impossible to enforce because tax collectors would be tarred and feathered by colonists. And if you think about the way that a stamp tax of that kind works, it suppresses local government by making it pay money to a distant government. This led a lot of colonists to the idea that local government was exactly what Britian was afraid of... (Britian eventually repealed this one too)

By the time the Tea Tax came around, the colonists were already at a low boil (so to speak). We all know how this led them to commit one of the most famous terrorist acts in American history, the 'Boston Tea Party'. With resistance so overt, outright rebellion could not be far behind!

Answer 2

Each of the thirteen colonies were angry that England would demand tax money be paid every year,but when the colonists asked for representation in Parliament,their requests fell on deaf ears. Yet the colonists were ordered to follow governent policy dictated by King George III. Oh and by the way, SHAME ON YOU for waiting till the last minute!