How did the British use the French and Indian War as a reason for why they felt entitled to tax the colonies?

The French and Indian War was one of a string of costly wars between the British and French.  Each war expanded the scope of the conflict and involved more logistical challenges.  Britain claimed (correctly) that the American colonist paid less in taxes than their counterparts in the British Isles.  Due to salutary neglect, British tax collectors in the colonies took a rather lax approach to their duties. The customs officers in the colonies also did...

The French and Indian War was one of a string of costly wars between the British and French.  Each war expanded the scope of the conflict and involved more logistical challenges.  Britain claimed (correctly) that the American colonist paid less in taxes than their counterparts in the British Isles.  Due to salutary neglect, British tax collectors in the colonies took a rather lax approach to their duties. The customs officers in the colonies also did not enforce the Navigation Acts carefully.  When British officials got a closer look at colonial government during the war, they were shocked by the level at which the colonists flouted British tax laws.  Since British troops were needed in the colonies to protect roaming colonists from the Native Americans in the West, Parliament decided to demand more payment from the colonists to pay for their own defense.  The first act prevented colonists from moving past the Appalachian Mountains. This would keep them from attacking the Indians and make tax collection easier.  Of course, land-hungry settlers bristled at this idea.  Parliament only insisted that they were getting more insistent about collecting taxes that they should have been collecting all along.  The colonists claimed that Parliament was demanding money without colonial consent. Moreover, they were having a hard time paying due to a recession after the French and Indian War.  This ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.