ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Seven Years' War,

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a rite of passage for all second graders.

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All right, first up, the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ] John Adams.

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And now the question:

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What led to the corruption and increased taxes mentioned in the excerpt?

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Mentioned right there.

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ horse neighs ] [ mumbles ]

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All right, well John Adams had some pretty strong feelings

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about working with the British,

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claiming it was difficult to reason with lawmakers when

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"luxury, effeminacy,

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and venality are arrived

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at such a shocking pitch in England."

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Tell us how you really feel there, Johnny.

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All right, were these instances of British corruption

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and increased taxes a result of A -

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colonial reliance on slave labor from Africa?

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Hmm. Well, the colonists were certainly no strangers to

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corruption, given their involvement with the slave trade

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and other smuggling operations.

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But those were pretty separate from issues of British corruption

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that had leaders like John Adams in an intellectual tizzy.

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That puts out A and C. Cross them off.

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Could the corruption and increased taxes mentioned in the excerpt

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have resulted from D - British colonization in the Eastern Hemisphere?

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Distant British colonies were the furthest and

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farthest thing from the rebels minds, especially since those

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territories had nothing to do with the increased taxes.

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So if this malpractice wasn't rising from the East,

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then the corruption and increased taxes settling in the West

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must have come from B - British debt incurred during the Seven Years' War.

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Many colonists fought alongside the British in the Seven Years' War -

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better known over here as the French and Indian War -

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only to have the conflict used as justification for increased taxes.

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So B is the correct answer.

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These punishing levies and fines really taxed

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colonists' willingness to remain a part of the empire,

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and it would only take a few more years for things to turn...

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revolutionary.

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[ drums ]

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