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A new age of thought and reason emerged from Europe and America in the 18th century. This new age would be known as the Enlightenment, where people believed they were entering an age of reason, science, and a respect for humanity. During the Enlightenment, thinkers thought that the Roman Catholic Church had caused the human mind to be closed from reason. Instead of strictly following Christian theology, people took the form of Deism, accepting the existence of God. There were also some risks involved by taking part in the Enlightenment. A person could be imprisoned for his writings, and most were hampered by the government or attacked by the church. The Enlightenment ended with the French Revolution of 1789. After the French and Indian War, Britain suffered from a great war debt. The solution to this was to tax the American Colonies. One example of these taxes would be the Stamp Act. In order for marriage licenses, mortgages, diplomas, bills of sale, and newspapers to be official, a person had to pay a tax for the stamp. The Stamp Act of 1765 affected almost everyone, and the colonists hated it. Many other taxes soon came, such as the Tea Act and Sugar Act. The American Colonies became tired of these taxes brought upon them from the British. The Declaration of Independence was then written in 1776. It contained the reasons for their want to break away from British rule. After winning the Revolutionary War, the Americans soon started to produce their own government. It was a one-house legislature that denied Congress the power to tax. It was called the Articles of Confederation. But this inability to tax proved to be a problem for the new country for they had a large war debt. Farmers in debt soon began to rebel against the new government for they were in great debt and their land was seized. This armed rebellion was led by Daniel Shays, but it was put down by the Massachusetts militia and the rebellion ended.
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