"Give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry. What caused the American colonists to be so hostile? Why did they feel imprisoned by the British government? It started right after the French and Indian War. Great Britain was 143 million pounds in dept after the French and Indian war. To decrease their great dept they ended salutary neglect and started to enforce the Navigation Acts. The Navigation were prepared to stop smuggling and to put the British theory of Mercantilism into affect. Furthermore the British wanted to end the threat of the Dutch Trade. Around this time American colonists became sided. One reason why they became sided was because there were many new taxes being put in place. The first group of people was the loyalists. Loyalists sought to protect what they believed were the common interests of Great Britain and the colonists. While the patriots were colonists...