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The End of the French and Indian War
After the French and Indian War, relations between Britain and its colonies in America became strained for several reasons. The British levied taxes, unfairly in the colonists' eyes, to repay debt resulting from the war. The Americans adopted new political philosophies, in tune with republicanism and radical Whigs' beliefs, that clashed with the mercantilist relationship between Britain and the colonies, and this led to a shift in the perception of British political decisions in America. -
The Sugar or Quartering Act
Following the French and Indian War, Britain faced considerable economic difficulties, which they sought to remedy through taxation. The Sugar Act was one of the first laws passed to extract revenue from the colonists' taxes. The British viewed the tax as a means of payment for the defence provided during the French and Indian War, but the Americans saw it as an unfair imposition from a government in which they lacked any representation. The Sugar Act was notably followed by the Quartering Act. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act made stamped paper a compulsory action. People were required to affix stamps to certify that they had paid their tax. This, in addition to the Sugar Act, was in an effort to pay for the French and Indian War. The Americans resented this act as they felt it, with others, was an attack on local liberties. Additionally, the use of admiralty courts, that lacked juries, to try offenders of the act upset the majority of the colonists, as the burden of proof rested on defendant. -
The Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act clearly defined the rights Parliament had over the colonists – basically, that they had every right to impose any laws on the colonists. This -
The Townshend Acts
Charles Townshend took control of the British ministry in 1767 and had Parliament pass a series of acts, named for him. Most notable among these acts were the taxes on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea. These taxes were resented mostly due to the Americans lack of representation – and thereby consent to taxation. The colonists protested with nonimportation agreements similar to those successful in repealing the Stamp Act, but they accomplished little. Smuggling became more commonplace. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre directly resulted from the Townshend Acts. The colonists were convinced of their ability to make a difference, as they had brought about the Stamp Act's repeal. The act of the salary royal governors' salaries being taken out of their hands greatly concerned the Americans. Amidst other protests, a mob of tens of Bostonians harassed about ten British soldiers, who fired on the increasingly angry crowd who were upset over the shooting of child. Eleven were killed or wounded. -
The Boston Tea Party
Following the British East India Company's Crown-granted monopoly of the American tea industry, legal tea became considerably cheaper; the colonists feared that this was a way for the British to manipulate them into paying taxes, so the tea was boycotted. Port cities turned away ships, except for Boston. Governor Thomas Hutchinson, a British official, demanded the ships carrying tea be allowed entry, resulting in Bostonians throwing nearly 350 chests of tea into the harbor. -
The Intolerable Acts (and the Quebec Act)
The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws that were a result of the Boston Tea Party; they were intended to punish Massachusetts (Boston specifically). These acts bred sympathy for Bostonians and were to an extent used to justify the American Revolution. They created an air of animosity and united colonists almost universally against the British. The Quebec Act gave land and freedoms to French Catholics with wildly different values from the American colonists. -
The First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress met in September of 1774 to discuss colonial grievances, namely in reference to the Intolerable Acts. They drafted petitions to send to Parliament in addition to developing the Association, which instated a complete boycott of British goods to force immediate action. This congress was the first example of complex intercolonial cooperation, and while it was ultimately ineffective in its true goal, it provided the basis for government during and after the Revolution. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord - "The Shot Heard Round the World"
This battle marked the true beginning of the American Revolution; following the rejection of the American petitions from the First Continental Congress by Parliament, it led Americans to openly begin to prepare to fight. This conflict's immediate cause was the attempted seizure of ammunitions (and attacks on John Hancock and Samuel Adams) by British troops outside of Boston, which developed into conflict first in Lexington and then in Concord, resulting in the British retreat to Boston.
