The French and Indian War..?

Question:

The French and Indian War..?

How did the French and Indian War make the colonies feel independent? At the same time what made them feel less independent due to what the British required or impressed on them after the war?
Thanks in advance! 8)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: [1] ??How did the French and Indian War make the colonies feel independent???

The word ??independent?? in that part of your question is not a good description of how the colonies felt. ??Secure?? and / or ??confident?? and / or ??self-sufficient?? would fit better.

The British / Colonial victory in the French and Indian War deleted French power from North America, and also reduced the ability of Indian tribes to oppose Colonial expansion. These factors had until then presented a constant threat to the security of the Colonies, and had placed absolute limits on their territorial expansion. As a result of the victory, the security threat was removed and in regions like the Ohio country there was not much left to prevent a huge land-grab by the Colonies. So the Colonies could feel both ??secure?? and ??confident??. The Colonies could also feel ??self-sufficient?? because they no longer needed the British army to protect them from the French and Indians: the French were crushed; the Indians had been greatly weakened.

[2] ??What made them feel less independent due to what the British required or impressed on them???

(a) As noted above, one of the war aims of the Colonies in the French and Indian War was to open up the Ohio Country, etc. for colonial settlement; and this aim seemed to have been won as a result of victory in the war.

But, to the great disappointment of the Colonies, the British government saw things differently. The British government saw no great benefit, but a lot of potential problems, from expanding colonial settlement into Indian lands. The reaction of the Indians to any such land-grab would obviously be hostile, so substantial British army units might be required to fight yet more Indian wars, and that would be expensive.

The British government felt that ample benefit without major expense could be obtained by prohibiting further territorial expansion of the Colonies; by peaceful coexistence with the Indian tribes as trading partners (in the same way as they had coexisted with the French); and in limiting military expenditures on the frontiers to the manning of a chain of forts, designed as much to keep Colonial settlers OUT as to keeping Indian raiding parties from getting IN.

The Colonials felt cheated of their war prize by this British policy. And its imposition remained a clear and uncomfortable reminder that the Colonies certainly were not ??independent??, but had to abide by the limits Britain set upon their expansion.

(b) To add injury to insult, the British government also wanted the Colonies in America to pay their fair share of the expenses incurred in fighting the French and Indian War; and also to pay the ongoing expenses of maintaining the cordon of military posts along the frontier with the Indian lands. From the British perspective, these were reasonable demands because the Colonies contributed virtually nothing in taxes to the Imperial purse, yet had gained huge benefit from the Imperial military. Moreover, the standard of living in the American Colonies was already substantially higher than that of the Home Country. In Britain??s view, the Colonies not only SHOULD pay taxes to Britain, but could also well AFFORD to pay.

But, of course, to the Colonials, Britain??s demand for taxes to pay for something that the Colonials felt they no longer needed - the British army in North America - and in fact did not even want, was outrageous ?? especially because the voices of the Colonies had no representation in the British Parliament. That again signaled to the Colonies that victory in the French and Indian War had not brought them any measure of real independence from Britain.