This should have been a relatively easy question. The Seven Years War (the French and Indian War was the North American theater of the overall war) nearly bankrupted the British Empire. Wars are expensive to fight, and the French and Indian War was no exception. Moreover, the subjects of the British Empire (the citizens of England, essentially) were already the highest-taxed citizenry in the entire world, so the Brits were aware that, politically speaking, attempting to assess any additional taxes would be disagreeable, to say the least. Thus, the Brits turned their eyes to the colonies—the colonies who, due to smuggling, and lax oversight by the British government, were paying next to nothing in taxes of any kind.

Open and shut answer here, no tricks or gimmicks. The Articles of Confederation imposed very high transaction costs on all parties involved (transaction costs, of course, are the time effort and money it takes to get something done). The transaction costs were so high that it took a unanimous vote to amend the Articles of Confederation.

This question assesses your ability to remember the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. One of the weaknesses, of course, was the government’s inability to control interstate (between-states) commerce. This led to states raising all sorts of trade barriers against one another and inadvertently hurting both themselves and the fledgling country.

The Proclamation Line of 1763 was created by Great Britain so that conflict between Native Americans and the American colonists would be avoided. By setting a settlement line along the Appalachian mountains, they hoped that lack of physical proximity and encroachment would eliminate conflict between the two groups.

Similar to Enlightenment ideas, the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence supported the ideas that if the government does not protect the rights of the people, a revolution is justified. 

The Second Continental Congress established itself as the primary governing body during the Revolutionary War and began to make all the necessary steps in order that the country should be able to effectively wage war. The Olive Branch petition was roundly refuted by the British, and indeed most Representatives believed it to be little more than a piece of propaganda. Much more important were the dispatches to other European nations requesting economic or even military assistance. One consequence of this was France entering the war on the side of the colonists. The Congress also ratified the Declaration of Independence, but did not ratify the Constitution (that would not happen until 1789). Instead, they proposed an Articles of Confederation, which would serve as the governing document between 1781-1789, the years immediately following war.

Benjamin Franklin was a staunch advocate of colonial unity, believing cohesion to be critical in the face of the ensuing revolution.  He is well known for his famous cartoon, 'Join or Die' which depicted a snake cut up into eighths, each representing a colony.

The Anti-Federalists opposed ratification of the Constitution on a number of issues that centered on the fear that the power of the Federal government had been increased too heavily, at the expense of the States, and would lead the power of the centralized government to keep growing and growing. Further, to the point of preventing a possible rise of tyranny the Anti-Federalist demanded that prior to ratification the Constitution have included a Bill of Rights that would forever codify into law the individual freedoms and liberties of all Americans. The central argument of the Anti-Federalists was that, as written, the Constitution did not do enough to prevent the possibility of an autocratic President, or Congress, gaining power and using it to subjugate the people.

The British government, and Prime Minister George Greenville, issued the Stamp Act to help raise revenue for the indebted Crown. Although many in British society felt that the colonists owed a debt to the British public for protecting them during the French-Indian wars, and many in the colonies felt that this was meant as a demonstration of the Crown’s ultimate dominion the primary reason was simple “dollars and cents”. The government needed more money and was willing to incur the colonists’ wrath in order to get it. The Stamp Act was passed in 1765 and required colonists to purchase heavily taxed stamps for all post and newspapers. The passage of the Act promoted widespread indignation and some protests in the colonies. 

William Penn was granted a proprietary colony from the English Crown in 1682 and endeavored to set up a colony that granted political freedom to all and, also, to provide a colony for the “Holy Experiment” of the Quakers – who were disparaged and persecuted in Europe. Penn’s intentions were somewhat democratic, but the most pertinent reason was the provisions guaranteeing Quaker religious freedom.