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The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was just a small part of a massive conflict between Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Sweden called the Seven Years War. The war in North America was mainly a conflict between the English Colonies and the French with their Indian allies. Conflict was mainly over the Ohio River Valley. -
Proclamation of 1763
The British tried to discourage American colonists from settling westward. Americans moving west would stretch British administrative resources thin. Just because the French government had yielded this territory to Britain did not mean the Ohio Valley's French inhabitants would readily give up their claims to land or trade routes
This caused the British to ban any colonial movement past the Appalachian mountains. -
The Stamp Act
The French and Indian War had been very costly for Britain. To pay for the war, Britain taxed the colonies on paper goods. When buying a paper good, one would have to also purchase a taxed stamp. Many colonist were angered by the tax and boycotted many paper products. -
The Tea Act
Parliament needed a way to tax the colonies. They decided to grant the British East India Company a trading monopoly with the American colonies. A tax on tea would be maintained, but the company would actually be able to sell its tea for a price that was lower than before. The colonies were outraged by this attempt to tax them. -
The Intolerble Acts
After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament was very angry with the colonies. Boston Harbor was closed until the owners of the tea were compensated. Only food and firewood were permitted into the port, town meetings were banned, the British commander of North American forces, was appointed governor of Massachusetts. British troops and officials would now be tried outside Massachusetts for crimes. Greater freedom was granted to British officers who wished to house their soldiers in houses. -
The Boston Tea Party
After a ship full of cheap, taxed tea appeared in Boston Harbor, colonists were outraged at the British's "stealthy" way to tax them. On a late December night, a group called "The Sons of Liberty" disguised themselves as Native Americans and bordered the tea ship. The masked men then proceeded to throw over 300 chests of tea over board. The damage was equivalent to one million dollars today. -
The Declaration of Independace
Colonists felt deprived by the British not only of their money and their civil liberties, but their lives as well. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to the Congress that declared the thirteen colonies "free and independent states."A subcommittee of five, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, was selected to choose the careful wording. Finally on July 4, 1776, the colonies approved the document.
