There were many controversies and arguments between the American colonies and Great Britain. It was not one particular action that caused the American Revolution, but the addition of many new laws that were adding to the colonists anger. One of these controversies, which was the American's resistance to taxation by the British, played a major role in the American Revolution.
The Americans felt that taxation was wrong, and they did not think that they should have to pay it. Since the colonies were not represented in Parliament, they said, Parliament had no right to tax them. The colonists felt that only the colonial assemblies could tax them, because the colonial assemblies were the only bodies that represented the colonies.
To protest new tax laws, and taxes in general, the colonists would tar and feather the tax collectors, or put up things that were symbolic of the tax collectors, and burn it, called "burning in effigy". The colonists did these things because they felt should not have to pay taxes.
Great Britain, on the other hand, felt that they had reasons for taxing the colonists. They felt that they were doing them a service by leaving officers there to guard the people, and wanted to be reimbursed by the colonies for that. They also had to get money to pay for the war debts, and they did that by getting the money from the colonies.
A British action that brought about the American Revolution was the colonial opposition to maintaining a British army in America. The colonist did not like the British army there, and felt that it was an infringement on their privacy. Great Britain said it was to protect the colonists, but the colonists still did not like having to house the British soldiers, and did not want to have them there in the first place. .
Another action that helped bring about the American Revolution was the royal decree preventing the sale of western land. The Proclamation of 1763 said that the colonists could not settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.
