<P> Relations between the Thirteen Colonies and the British Parliament slowly but steadily worsened after the end of the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War) in 1763 . The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and so the British Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies . Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs of maintaining the British Empire . Although protests led to the repeal of the Stamp and Townshend Acts, Parliament adhered to the position that it had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever" in the Declaratory Act of 1766 . </P> <P> A further tension especially with the Southern colonies was the Somerset v Stewart ruling of 1772 in which chattel slavery of humans was found totally unsupported in common law and as England had no statute for it, unenforceable . As the "slave owner" concerned (Stewart) was from another British colony (Jamaica) this evolution ending slavery at common law was very disturbing to colonists travelling with servants. . </P> <P> Many colonists, either sincerely or with motives to avoid English imposed law as above, developed a different conception of the British Empire . Under the British Constitution, they argued, a British subject's property (in the form of taxes) could not be taken from him without his consent (in the form of representation in government). Therefore, because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, some colonists insisted that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them, a view expressed by the slogan "No taxation without representation ." After the Townshend Acts, some colonial essayists took this line of thinking even further, and began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all . This question of the extent of Parliament's sovereignty in the colonies was the issue underlying what became the American Revolution . </P> <P> On December 16, 1773, a group of Patriot colonists associated with the Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea in Boston, Massachusetts, an act that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party . The colonists partook in this action because Parliament had passed the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, thereby saving the company from bankruptcy . This made British tea less expensive, which Parliament thought would be a welcome change in the colonies . In addition, there was added a small tax on which the colonists were not allowed to give their consent, but the tea still remained less expensive even with the tax . Again, Parliament taxed the colonists without their representation . This angered the colonists . News of the Boston Tea Party reached England in January 1774 . Parliament responded by passing four laws . Three of the laws were intended to directly punish Massachusetts . This was for destruction of private property, to restore British authority in Massachusetts, and to otherwise reform colonial government in America . </P>

What was the british rationale for the intolerable acts