Why is British victory in the French and Indian Wars a foreshadowing of difficult times ahead in British-colonial relations?

British victory was not as important as American
participation in that victory in foreshadowing future events. Americans had a new sense
of patriotism, but also a sense of Americanism. They had a new vision of their
importance to the Empire, so much so that Benjamin Franklin spoke of a time when the
capital of the empire would be on the Hudson rather than the Thames. There was growing
resentment and distaste by Americans for the British military in response to the
haughtiness of the British towards the Americans, most of whom were volunteers, and the
complete ineptitude of the British at frontier methods of fighting. Recent historical
research has indicated that American fighters in the war felt a moral superiority to
their British counterparts. The harsh punishments imposed on British soldiers and the
cursing, drinking and whore-mongering of the redcoats contributed itself to this feeling
of superiority. This situation was exacerbated when George Grenville, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, was determined to keep British troops in America even though they were
neither wanted nor needed there. Grenville did not want influential British officers
meddling in British politics, so he kept them in the Americas, contributing to the
growing feeling of resentment.

The immense cost of the war
was also a factor, as well as the issue of governance of Western lands. The new monarch,
George III imposed the Royal Proclamation of 1763 on the colonies, forbidding settlement
west of the crest of the Appalachian mountains. This proclamation was not only largely
ignored; it contributed to a growing sense of independence and "separateness" from the
remainder of the Empire. In short, there was a growing sense that the colonists were
Americans, not British. All of these were a result of the French and Indian
War.