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Thesis
In my opinion money and the economic situation were the contributing factors in the road to revolution. In opinion of the colonists, Britain was using them to get money to pay their war debts from the French and Indian War. After this war the colonists didn't need Britain to protect them anymore so then they realized that they did not need to put up with Britain's unfair taxes and laws anymore. This is what lead to the Revolution. -
Proclamation of 1763
This law stated by King George III after the French and Indian war, declared all lands west to the Appalachian mountains off-limits to colonial settlers.This may have played a role in the separation of the United States from Great Britain as colonists wanted to continue the beneficial practice of taking land for one's own livelihood. -
Sugar Act
This tax was a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act, passed by the Parliament, that reduced the rate of tax on molasses and also listed more foreign goods to be taxed.This disrupted the colonial economy by reducing the markets to which the colonies could sell and the amount of currency available to them for the purchase of British products.This act set the stage for the revolt at the imposition of the Stamp Act. -
Stamp Act
Passed by the British Parliament this new tax was imposed on all colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used.The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America. This Act was very unpopular among colonists since they considered it a violation of their rights to be taxed without their consent, which only the colonial legislatures could grant. Their slogan was "No taxation without representation." -
Quartering Act
This are two Acts of the British Parliament in the local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations and housing. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area.This soon became a source of tension between the colonists and the government in London which would later fuel the fire that led to the American Revolution. -
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Stamp Act Congress
It was the first meeting of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to create a unified protest against the new British taxation and it was held at a time of widespread protests in the colonies against the Stamp Act's implementation. Some British merchants' business with the colonies suffered as a consequence of the protests and these economic issues prompted the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. -
Declaratory Act
This law was passed by the British parliament to affirm its power to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”. The declaration stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain. The colonist accepted this and celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act loosing sight of the fact that this meant they also had authorithy to tax. -
Repeal of the Stamp Act
The opposition to the Stamp Act was not limited to the colonies, British merchants and manufacturers, whose exports to the colonies were threatened by colonial boycotts, also pressured the Parliament who repealed the Act as a matter of expedience, but also affirmed its power to legislate for the colonies by also passing the Declaratory Act. -
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Townshend Act
This were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods and it's purpose was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would remain loyal to Great Britain,The Acts were met with resistance in the colonies and as a result of the protests of the colonists, Parliament began to partially repeal most of the new taxes but the tax on tea was retained. The British government continued in its attempt to tax the colonists without their consent -
Boston Massacre
It was an incident in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others from a mob formed around a British sentry.. Depictions, reports, and propaganda about the event further heightened tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies.The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most important events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority. -
Boston Tea Party
In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor as a protest for the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773.The Parliament, as an answer for the destruction of British property, presented the Intolerable Acts who led the colonists to call the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British. -
Intolerable Acts
They were three punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party.The acts took away Massachusetts' self-government and historic rights,provoking outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies and being key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolution -
Quebec Act
It was a law passed by the British Parliament to establish a permanent administration in Canada replacing the temporary government.It gave the French Canadians complete religious freedom and restored the French form of civil law.The freedom of religion also roused much resentment among Protestants in the Thirteen Colonies and although it helped to bring on the American Revolution, it was also very influential in keeping Canada loyal to the crown. -
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First Continental Congress
It was a meeting in which delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia met in Philadelphia and that was called in response to the Intolerable Acts passed by the Parliament.The Congress met to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances but their appeal to the king wasn't answer what lead to the convene of the Second Continental Congress. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
This Battles signaled the start of the American Revolutionary war. The British Army set out from Boston to capture two rebel leaders in Lexington as well as to destroy the Americans store of weapons in Concord. However the colonists were warned that the British Army was approaching so the british didn't succeed. -
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Second Continental Congress
This was a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that succeeded the First Continental Congress and met in Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Independence Hall. It managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence,creating the United States Declaration of Independence.It acted as the national government of what became the United States. -
Declaration of Independence
It is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress which announced that the thirteen American colonies,that were at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, forming the new nation of the United States of America, and no longer under British rule.It also granted important rights to colonists.
