 Complete the following phrase:  During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of growing anger against Parliaments repeated attempts to tax American colonists without their consent. The Americans readied their large militias, but were short of gunpowder and artillery. The British assumed falsely that they could easily suppress Patriot resistance. In 1775 the American Revolutionary War began. In 1776 the Patriots expelled all the royal officials and 