They issued the Stamp Act and Townsend Acts of 1765. The taxes placed on the colonists were minimal and far less than the taxes they would have been paying had they remained in England. The colonies would have eventually been brought to debt regardless of taxation. The colonies were unprepared to handle the large amount of land they had just received from the war and they needed Britain's help. The main complaint about the taxation is that the colonists had no representation in Parliament. This argument is untrue, because everyone, including the colonists, was represented in Parliament. The colonies were represented through a virtual representation. Furthermore, Britain, as the mother country, had the right to tax its colony and since the debt was created by the colonies, the colonists were lucky that Britain did not bare the entire burden on the colonies.
Britain had many difficulties in enforcing the taxes. The terrorist group of the Sons of Liberty exercised many coercive actions in opposition to the taxes. They attempted to force stamp agents to resign from their post. They also committed such horrendous acts such as hanging prominent British office holders, tarring and feathering and ransacking loyalists and their homes. Britain proceeded to place soldiers in the colonies help more efficiently enforce the Stamp Act and the Townsend Acts. A multitude of soldiers were stationed in Boston specifically, because of all the rebellious behavior among the colonists there. Verbal feuding and small brawls were frequent interactions between the colonists and the soldiers. These skirmished eventually led up to the so-called Boston "Massacre," which hardly lives up to its unwarranted name. In March of 1770 a mob of about sixty townspeople encircled a group of British soldiers guarding a customs house. The angry mob began pelting the soldiers with snowballs and ice balls. In a state of panic, shots were fired into the crowd.
