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American identity emerges.
One could argue that the American Revolution started when most wars start, like the first battle. One could also argue that the war started slightly before then with the overtaxation of colonists. These arguements are sound, but I veiw the revolution as starting when colonists started shedding their loyalty to the king and veiwing themselves as seperate from England. This gave them the incentive to set up their own rule and to turn against a Governmental body that they veiwed as being a part of -
The Great war for empire
The great war for empire illustrated how ill equipped England was to manage both their own affairs and the affairs of the colonies. The war left England in great debt which started the stream of taxes and regulation that led to revolution. -
The sugar act
The first of Grenvilles solutions to recieve more revenue came in the form of the sugar act. It lowered the insanely high tax of molasses and increased trade regulations. While it wasn't as universally hated as later acts, it wasn't exactly well recieved, esspecially from patriots like John Hancock who made their money from smuggling molasses. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses is the first formal body to protest, along with Patrick Henry. Henry likens the king to a past monarch that failed horribly and The House of Burgesses calls the stamp act a manifest destiny to destroy American Freedom. -
Stamp act and quartering act
Largely considered as the spark that lit the fire of rebbelion was the stamp act. Created to cover the cost of keeping british soildeirs in the colonies, it called for a tax on anything that was printed. Figures like Benjamen Franklen criticized the act and called for representation In parliment. Not only was the idea struck down, the quartering act was also decided to pass. it called for thecolonies to provide barracks and food for British soldiers. This was the straw that broke the camels bac -
Stamp act congress
Called together by James Otis, nine assemblies met in New York city to discuss the recent acts. The general consensus was that the acts were unjust and should be at least enforced by colonial officials rather than the british. They humbly called for a repeal of the stamp act and a boycott of british goods. -
Crowd actions.
The stamp act goes into effect and various riots break out across the colonies. The sons of liberty in Boston burn an effigy of a local tax collecter. In New York a large mob makes it's way through the streets crying for liberty. -
Declaratory act
News of the riots reach England. The king decides that the stamp act effected british trade negativively and repoeals the act. In it's stead, he puts in place the declaratory act which reaffirmed parliments power. -
Townshend act
Charles Townshend, unsympathetic to the colonies, uses his new position of power to create and pass yet another taxation act. It imposed duties on various imports. Townshend dismisses Benjamen Franklens distinction of internal and external taxation. This leads to another boycott of british goods and further disputes. -
Massacre
England begins to distribute soildiers in various colonies, including Boston. After around a year and a half of soildiers being stationed in Boston. one night british troops fire into a crowdand kill five. Patriots used this to rally both support and hatred for England. -
Skirmish at the north bridge
Known as the shot heard around the world,a battle took place shortly after the skirmish at Lexington. it was largely considered the first organized volley to come from the colonists. This was the point that the revolution evolved from simply a revolution, to an all out war.
