UK Citizenship Practice Test 2026 - Free Citizenship Practice Questions and Study Guide

The desire for independence among the American colonies was significantly fueled by the British government's insistence on taxing them without providing any form of representation in the British Parliament. This sentiment is encapsulated in the phrase "no taxation without representation," which became a rallying cry for the colonists. The imposition of taxes, such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, was viewed as an infringement on their rights and an overreach of British authority.

While the other options may have played a role in shaping the overall context of colonial dissatisfaction, they were not the primary catalyst for the independence movement. The quest for new territories was less relevant to the immediate grievances that spurred the independence movement, and the influence of the French Revolution came later, after the American Revolution had already begun. The desire for religious freedom, while important to many colonists, was not as central to the collective push for independence as the issue of taxation and representation was.