The origins of the War of Regulation stem from a dramatic population increase in North and South Carolina in the 1760s, following migration from the larger eastern cities to the rural west.

The inland section of the colonies had once been predominantly composed of planters with an agricultural economy.

Merchants and lawyers have begun to move west, upsetting the social and political structure.

They have been joined by new Scots-Irish immigrants, who populate the backcountry.

At the same time, the local inland agricultural community suffers from a deep economic depression because of severe droughts throughout the previous decade.

The loss of crops cost farmers not only their direct food source but also their primary means of an income, which lead many to rely on the goods being brought by newly arrived merchants.

As income is cut off, the local planters often fall into debt.

The merchants, in turn, rely on lawyers and the court to settle disputes.

Debts are common at the time, but from 1755 to 1765, the cases brought to the docket increase nearly sixteen-fold, from seven annually to one hundred and eleven in Orange County, North Carolina, alone.
 
Such court cases can often lead to planters losing their homes and property so they grow to resent the presence of the newcomers.

The shift in population and politics eventually leads to an imbalance within the colony's courthouses, and the new and well-educated lawyers use their superior knowledge of the law to their sometimes unjust advantage.

A small clique of wealthy officials forms and becomes an exclusive inner circle in charge of the legal affairs of the area. 

In 1764, several thousand people from North Carolina, mainly from Orange, Anson, and Granville counties in the western region, had become extremely dissatisfied with the wealthy North Carolina officials, whom they considered cruel, arbitrary, tyrannical and corrupt.

Local sheriffs collect  taxes, as supported by the courts; the sheriffs and courts haved sole control over their local regions.

With the arrival of Royal Governor William Tryon in 1765, volatile conditions in the Province of North Carolina increasingly worsen, and a violent uprising will eventually occur.

Many of the officers are very greedy and often band together with other local officials for their own personal gain. The entire system depends on the integrity of local officials, many of whom engage in extortion; taxes collected often enriched the tax collectors directly.

At times, sheriffs intentionally remove records of their tax collection to go back to residents to ask for more taxes.

The effort to eliminate the system of government becomes known as the Regulator uprising, War of the Regulation, or the Regulator War.

The most heavily affected areas are said to be those of Rowan, Anson, Orange, Granville, and Cumberland counties.

It is a struggle between mostly lower-class citizens, who make up the majority of the backcountry population of North and South Carolina, and the wealthy planter elite.