Question

Why American colonists had strong views about self government ?

Answer 1

The colonists had to develop their own governments anyway because of the fact that they were so far away from England. Then there was an event known as the First Great Awakening, which was a religious revival that swept across the colonies in the mid 1700's. This revival caused people to realize that everyone was equal in the eyes of God, so they applied that to their government and created representative governments where everyone had a say. 
Back in England, the king wasn't allowing the colonies to have a representative in Parliament, so the colonies had no say whenever new laws or taxes were made for them. This made colonists mad, and eventually it led to them wanting to govern themselves and start a new country.