Road to Revolution Timeline

  • French and Indian War

    *"7 Year War"
    *Fight for control over key access points in North America
    *Britain won
    *Treaty of Paris- any land to the East of the Mississippi river belonged to Britain
    *Left Britain 8 million dollars in debt after supplying the colonies for the war
  • Sugar Act

    *Indirect tax by Brits to America
    *Didn't work well as Bostonians got really good at smuggling and were openly defiant to officers, as they refused to let them search their ships, despite the Writ of Assistance
    *Not collecting enough money lead to the stamp act
  • Stamp Act

    *Printed goods were stamped to show payment of taxes
    *Major colonial resistance causes it to be repealed in just one year
    *Colonial resistance included: boycotts, tarring and feathering, further smuggling, and the formation of sons and daughters of liberty
  • Townshend Acts

    *tax on glass, paint, tea
    *tea- very popular, although, not necessary, good
    *England needed a popular item with lots of sales in order to collect much needed money
    *The money collected from this new act, however, did not go to paying off debt, but toward the troops stationed in Boston
    *Repealed after 4 years
  • Quartering Act

    *Colonists forced to house soldiers
    *Colonists upset that they had to give up their food, space, and privacy with nothing in return
    *As a result the price of the inns and taverns went up
  • Declaratory Acts

    *All laws passed by the British were superior to those of the Americans
    *Colonists had been self governing for at least 130yrs
    *British took away their "right" to self govern
    *Everything the colonist gov't decided, the British gov't had to approve
    *Colonies consisted of loyalists (British supporters) and patriots (wanting independence from Britain)
  • Tea Act

    *Tax on tea and coffee
    *British East India Co. in danger of bankruptcy
    *Awarded monopoly to British East India Co. to ensure tax collection
  • Boston Tea Party

    *Protest by Sons of Liberty on monopoly
    *Bostonians refuse to allow the unloading of tea from the British East India Co.
    *British not getting taxes---going bankrupt
    *Sons of Liberty dumped tea in the harbor
  • Intolerable Acts

    *Boston Port Act
    *Mass Gov't Act
    *Justice Act
    *Quartering Act
    *Quebec Act
    *Britain targeted Boston to punish them
    *Backfired as other colonies supported Boston (the same could happen to them)
  • 1st Continental Congress

    *Sam Adams calls all the colonies to meeting to derive how they will rebel against England
    *As one colony agrees to contribute, another follows their lead