Question 61 of 100 · 2008 civics test
Why did the colonists fight the British?
From the 100-question list, the version for applications filed before October 20, 2025.
Accepted answers
- because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
- because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
- because they didn’t have self-government
Any one of these is accepted, unless the question asks for more than one.
Why this is the answer
Three answers are accepted and each names a real grievance. The British taxed the colonists without their consent and left them nobody to represent their needs in the British government, which is the complaint known as taxation without representation. Ordinary colonists were forced to let British soldiers sleep and eat in their homes. And the British governed them without their consent, denying them self-government. Anger had been building for years before the Revolutionary War began in 1775, and the Declaration of Independence later set out these repeated injuries as the reasons for the break. Memory hook: taxes without a voice, soldiers in the house, no say in their own government.