How do you organize a resistance movement in the pre-internet days? You write letters. Learn about the committees of correspondence on today's 60-Second Civics.

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The laws passed by Parliament to raise revenue and assert control over the American colonies were viewed differently by the colonists and by the British. King George III felt that the colonists were acting like ungrateful children. The colonists felt that tax laws should be passed only by their colonial legislatures.

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What's the big deal about tea, anyway? In 1773, a tax on this favorite beverage of the American colonists led to an act of rebellion known today as the Boston Tea Party.

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The British Parliament imposed a number of laws in the 1760s and 1770s to raise revenue and assert their control over the colonies. These were seen as heavy-handed by the colonists, and sparked resentment and resistance.

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The unpopular Sugar Act of 1764 was meant to stop the smuggling of goods into and out of the American colonies. Many people resisted the new law, fanning the flames of rebellion.

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After the French and Indian War, the British turned to the American colonies to pay its war debts. This and other measures were not popular with the colonists and increased tensions between Britain and the colonies

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For many years, Great Britain had a hands-off approach to governing the American colonies. The colonists became used to ruling themselves. All this changed in the mid-1700s, however, when the British began to show a new interest in the colonies as a source of revenue.

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In each of the American colonies, the powers of the colonial governments were divided among three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

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In creating colonial governments, the American colonists tried to protect themselves from abuse of power by the British government and their colonial governments.

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In creating colonial governments, the American colonists tried to protect themselves from abuse of power by the British government and their colonial governments.

Center for Civic Education