Civics question 77 of 128

Name one reason why the Americans declared independence from Britain.

Source: official USCIS question list for the 2025 version of the civics test. This site is independent and not affiliated with USCIS.

Background

Any one of these answers: high taxes, taxation without representation, British soldiers quartered in colonists' houses, the lack of self-government, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the Townshend Acts, or the Intolerable Acts. The list is essentially a decade of escalation, running from 1764 to 1774. Britain had won a costly war against France and began taxing the colonies to pay for it, breaking a long habit of leaving them largely to themselves. The colonial objection was less about the amount than about consent: taxes had always been voted by their own assemblies, and Parliament held no colonial members. Each new act brought protest, protest brought a harder response, and the cycle ended in war.

This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice to explain the civics fact. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and the official answer above is the one to give at the interview.

Where this question sits

It is part of Colonial Period and Independence, inside the American History section of the test.

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