Before the beginning of the war, Britain and the colonies had problems that caused tension to build. The beginning of the tension was the Stamp Act of 1765 . The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on the colonies requiring them to import specialized stamped paper from London and pay in British currency not colonial paper money. The tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British's victory in the Seven Years War. Many colonists were outraged by this and felt it was a violation of their rights because they had no representatives in the British Parliament. This caused the Stamp Act Congress to assemble to petition the British Parliament and King. This congress was the 1st ever joint colonial response to any British act or policy. Also, the Sons of Liberty started protests and demonstrations in response,which became more violent as more people got involved. Eventually, Stamp Act distributors were too scared of the protest, and the tax was not collected effectively ever again. The act was finally repealed on March 18th, 1766 after more pressure was put on Parliament by British merchants and manufacturers. This would lead to the passing of the Declaratory Act which lead to a series of taxes and regulations on the colonists by the British Parliament that would be heavily opposed.