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Britain captured Montreal
When the British captured Montreal, the French governor was forced to surrender the rest of Canada. With this win, British had effectively won the war. -
Treaty of Paris
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. The French gave up their territories in mainland North America to the British, ending their military threat to Britain. This allowed Britain to expand their territories. -
Sugar Act
George Grenville decided to collect taxes money simply by enforcing the duties the colonists ignored. The Sugar Act assigned customs officers and created courts to collect duties and prosecute smugglers who did not pay adequate taxes on sugar and molasses. The Sugar Act really merely a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733. Grenville hoped these acts would encourage the colonists to pay taxes. Colonists complained, but did not violently protest like they did with future taxes. -
Pontiac's Rebellion
In May 1763, the Ottawa chief Pontiac led 300 Native Americans in a siege on Fort Detroit. This attack brought together many warriors from different tribes to launch a more large-scale attack in the British. The coalition consisted of more than a dozen different Native groups. Pontiac negotiated for peace with he British in July 1766. The rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful but it forced the British to seek more peaceful relations with Native Americans and to slow their expansion into Ohio. -
Townshend Acts
the Townshend Acts levied new import duties in everyday items such as glass, lead, print, paper and tea. In response to this the colonists insisted that they would not pay any new taxes to Parliament. They also rejected the use of the taxes to pay the salaries of colonial governors and judges. The colonists protested through boycotts,but also turned to more violent forms of protest and began to riot on the streets. -
Boston Massacre
One night a group of colonists were throwing snowballs and rocks at a group of British soldiers guarding the Customs House. In a panic, the soldiers fired their guns into the crowd killing five colonists. This infuriated the colonists and intensified the anti-British sentiment. Patriots referred to this event as the Boston Massacre -
Boston Tea Party
The colonists did not like the tea taxes the British were enforcing with the Tea Act. They refused to buy tea from the East India Company and preferred to smuggle tea. The colonists boarded three British ships disguised as Native Americans and dumped 342 chests of tea (worth 1.7 million dollars of tea in today's money) into the harbor. This infuriated the British. -
First Continental Congress
In fall of 1774, delegates from every colony except Georgia met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here the delegates discussed colonial resistance to British taxes and decided that boycotts were the most effective in avoiding English taxes. During this meeting is when a Pennsylvania delegate, Patrick Henry, famously said "Give me liberty, or give me death." He also called upon everyone to not view themselves as "New Yorkers" or "Virginians", but rather "Americans".
