Did America overreact to the Stamp Act of 1765?

Considering that the British already paid similar taxes like this, did the colonists overreact to the Stamp Act?
 
The stamp act was just one problem of many.

Take it away and you still have the fact that the british were clamping down on a people who had enjoyed decades of relative self rule and resented it because they had just helped the mother country beat france and her allies in north america.

Also in the long run Tomas Pain was right, an Island can not rule a continante forever. North america was big and far away, england was small and close to europe, and that was going to kill their empire sooner or later.
 
The english paid similar taxes but had representation in the parlment so they could retckon it if they wanted. The american wanted representation too, so they would have word on the decisions.
 
Like Undeadmuffin said, the British had representation in Parliament, we did not. The call wasn't "No taxation", it was "No taxation without representation".
 
the Stamp Act was just one part of the whole 'changing the status quo' that the colonists were rebelling against. For decades, the UK had been treating the colonies with benign neglect, not levying all that many taxes, and the ones that were present were often not collected (colonial tax collectors were notoriously bad at their jobs). Smuggling was technically illegal, and mercantilism was supposed to limit the colonials' marketing opportunities, but in reality, the colonials were superb smugglers and did business pretty much as they pleased. Plus, there were issues such as the colonies' desire to expand east that Britain seemed determined to stand in the way of. While the French in Canada were a danger, the colonists were tolerant of the UK's whims, but once they were gone, they hoped to go back to 'business as usual'... only to find that the UK intended to crack down. Even when the rebellion finally broke out, it was at first not a movement for independence, but a desire to restore the status quo. Only later did it change.
So, to answer the OP, if it had been only the Stamp Act, then yes, it would have been an overreaction. With everything else, it wasn't surprising that rebellion happened..
 
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