Britain had to pay for the French and Indian War and, through things like the Stamp Act, were raising taxes on American Colonists to do it. The colonists didn't think it was fair that they could be taxed when their voices weren't even being heard by the British- they weren't being represented. The cry of "no taxation without representation" took hold in the American Colonies, and the idea that people deserved to be heard by their government was one that would change the world.