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Proclamation of 1763
Great Britain did not allow any requests to expand to the western parts of the country, which were reserved for the Native Americans. Following this proclamation, the colonists believed that Great Britain was trying to take away their right to occupy the lands. -
Sugar Act
The British government outlawed the importation of foreign rum to the colonies, as well as put taxes on many luxury items, such as silk and coffee. Many of the colonists protested against the act, and resulted in the phrase “No Taxation Without Representation” first being used. -
Currency Act
Parliament created this act so that the colonies would not be able to print or make their own money, even though since they were trading so often, it caused them to not have any “hard currency.” This put the colonies in an even worse position because they couldn’t print money which made it even more of a burden for them. -
Stamp Act
This act put taxes on all imported and exported paper products. If you were to try to work around not having a stamp on a package, you would have to pay a fine that would most likely be more than the stamp itself. If one would try to make a counterfeit seal, they would be punished accordingly, which would be death. Some of the colonists responded with hostility, while others took this as an opportunity to be able to create the Stamp Act Congress and to try to appeal to Parliament. -
Quartering Act
This law required the colonies to provide British troops with places to stay while they were watching over the colonies, for example, the colonies had to provide them with barracks so they would have a place to sleep at night. While this most likely angered the colonists because they had to give “the enemy” a place to sleep, the next years would end up being the worse. -
Declaratory Act
After Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and made modifications to the Sugar Act, Parliament decided to pass the Declaratory Act, which allowed Parliament to make any laws that they wanted to so that they could assert authority over the colonies. While the colonists didn’t want these laws to be passed, this Act showed that Parliament still had complete control over them. -
Townshend Act
Charles Townshend, who was a chancellor from Britain, designed a way to be able to take away the British concern of trade and their debt, this plan would add even more taxes to most of the imported goods that were for the colonies. While the Townshend Act didn’t get as much violence and protest as the Stamp Act did, it was still a drawback for the colonists and partly led to the Boston Massacre. -
Boston Massacre
After the Townshend Acts were released, there was even more tension between the British soldiers and the colonists, and this tension caused violence from the colonists side because the laws limited their rights. This violence caused the British soldiers to be dispatched to make sure the people were safe, but it ended up making the colonists even more mad. Antagonism between the two sides resulted in three dead colonists, which was shown as proof to say that the British were heartless and brutal. -
Boston Tea Party
At the time, the tea trade in the colonies was suffering because they didn't want to pay the tax on tea, so a lot of the tea was staying in Britain. But the agents in Boston were still ordering shipments of tea, so on the night of the Boston Tea Party, some of the colonists dressed up as Indians and were led by Samuel Adams to three ships that were anchored. There they dumped all of the tea into the sea, they did this because of the worry that people would purchase it and have to pay the tax. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws passed by Parliament to subdue the colonists: The Boston Port Bill closed the port in Boston until all the tea from the Boston Tea Party was paid for, and Parliament banned the colonists from having meetings without the Governor’s approval. The next laws were the Quartering Act and the Quebec Act. These acts angered the colonists because it was a limitation on their rights, which would make them easier to control and make pay for the debt of the wars. -
Quartering Act
This required the authorities to help find troops suitable homes to stay in, if necessary they would help put troops in private homes as well. This angered many colonists because it was an invasion of privacy for them. -
Quebec Act
The Quebec Act extended boundaries of the Province of Quebec to the Ohio River. This allowed for trials in North America without a jury, it also gave the Catholic Church a “semi-established” status. This ended up upsetting most of the colonists because there were many Protestant sects throughout the colonies. Eventually, the Quebec Act became associated with the Intolerable Acts, and it became known as the “Five Intolerable Acts.”