How did the Colonial responses inflame tensions in the American colony?

The American colonies did not take kindly the policies that Britain enacted, such as taxes. Britain seldom bothered to tax Americans or when it did, it did not bother to collect. But now needing funds, Britain started by enforcing stringent taxation on sugar and molasses, followed by the Stamp Act of 1756, and in the following year the Townshend Revenue acts.

The colonists protested against all these policies both by rioting and by highly effective boycotts which seriously affected British merchants. Tensions arose that led to the Boston Tea Party and soon after the Boston massacre and ultimately the revolutionary war.