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The end of the French and Indian War
Britain, emerging victorious of the French territories in Canada and became the dominant colonial power in North America.
With the French and Indian war over, many colonists saw no need for soldiers to be stationed in the colonies. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation Line prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian War.
The colonists felt the Proclamation was a plot to keep them under the strict control of England and that the British only wanted them east of the mountains so they could keep an eye on them. -
Sugar Act
British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund enlarged British Empire responsibilities.
In Massachusetts,participants in a town meeting cried out against taxation without proper representation in Parliament, and suggested some form of united protest throughout the colonies. -
The Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on varios forms of papers, documents, and playing cards.
The colonial reaction to the Stamp Act ranged from boycotts of British goods to riots and attacks on the tax collectors. -
Declaratory Act
It stated that the British Parliaments taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain.
The Declaratory Act made no such distinction. -
Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts were a series of measures,passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods imported to the American colonies.
Colonists organized boycotts of British goods to pressure Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occured on March 5, 1770, betweena patriot mob, several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.
Colonists rebelled agains the taxes they found repressive, rallying around "no taxaion without represenation". -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act granted the company the right to ship its tea directly to the colonies without fisrt landing it in England, and to commission agents who would have the sole right to sell tea in the colonies.
The colonists had never accepted the constitutionality of the duty on tea, and the Tea Act rekindled their opposition to it, colonists on December 16, 1773, colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumbed their loads of tea overboard. -
The start of the Revolutionary War
The colonists exchanged gunfire at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts described as "the shot heard round the world", it signaled the start of the American Revolution and led to the creation of a new nation.
The colonists started to resist by boycotting, or not buying, British goods.