USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Salutary neglect was Britain’s unofficial policy, initiated by prime minister Robert Walpole, to relax the enforcement of strict regulations, particularly trade laws, imposed on the American colonies late in the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries.

Detailed explanation-2: -By the 1770s, many colonists were angry because they did not have self-government. This meant that they could not govern themselves and make their own laws. They had to pay high taxes to the king. They felt that they were paying taxes to a government where they had no representation.

Detailed explanation-3: -The British policy of salutary neglect toward the American colonies inadvertently contributed to the American Revolution. This was because during the period of salutary neglect, when the British government wasn’t enforcing its laws in the colonies, the colonists became accustomed to governing themselves.

Detailed explanation-4: -Historians frequently link the reversal of the policy of salutary neglect with the conclusion of the French and Indian War (1754–63) and the desire by many in Parliament to recoup the considerable costs of defending the colonies with British forces through revenue-generating enforcement of trade restrictions.