Since the inception of the British colonies, American colonists had been taxed by British Parliament with duties associated with trade or commerce. But with a crushing debt that Britain accumulated as a result of the Seven Year’s War (1756–63), known in British America as the French and Indian War, King George III and Parliament reasoned that the colonies needed to offset the cost of their maintenance. Therefore, in March 1765, British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in an effort to raise revenue to pay for colonial administration and British troops stationed in the colonies. The Stamp Act was the first direct tax on the British colonies in North America. Under the act, colonial newspapers and other official documents were required to use expensive, specially stamped paper produced in England, sold for the purpose of raising the tax.