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Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was a Proclamation made by the British Crown to prohibit colonial expansion Westward to avoid conflict with Native American tribes, as well as keep the colonies small and controllable. Many colonist were largely angered by this and saw these restrictions as a infringement of their rights. Later, they proceeded to ignore the Proclamation's restrictions and head further West. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was an act created to update the already existing and outdated Molasses Act of 1733, primarily intended to decrease the amount of smuggling and under-the-table trade that had been occurring. In order to achieve this, the Parliament decided to decrease the taxes on items such as molasses, while increasing the tax on other goods, as well as increasing their ability to enforce the law. In response, the colonists refused to import items from British merchants, and writing objections. -
Currency Act
The Currency Act was an act intended to prohibit the printing and giving out of paper money from the Colonial Legislatures. In order to maintain this act, several fines and penalties were set in place for any member of the Colonial legislature who disobeyed. In response, Colonists were forced to use other means of currency for trade, such as Indian currencies, animal skins, stamps, and foreign coins. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was an act put in place to assist in the paying of the large debt that the British accumulated during the Seven Years War. Represented by a stamp, various forms, documents, playing cards, letters, or other forms of recognized parchment were taxed and the taxes were required to be payed in the current currency of Sterling. The citizens of the colonies were infuriated due to the lack of say they had in the matter, resulting in many violent protests and refusals to pay the tax. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act of 1765 prohibited British Soldiers from being required to be kept in private residences within the colonies, but required colonial legislatures to be responsible for payments needed for barracks and other living commodities. The required quartering of troops within the colonies led to large scale disputes between soldiers and townspeople, as well as the questioning of Parliamentary authority, leading to the New York colonial assembly refusing to comply with the new law. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was a declaration made by the British Parliament that stated that the Parliaments ability to tax was to be the same in the Americas as it is in Britain. The Act was meant to clear any possible questioning of the British Parliament's powers within British colonies. Due to the British Parliament attempting to cover its intentions with the repeal to the Stamp Act many colonists celebrated it as a victory, but many who saw the Act as a foot in the door for more tax were outraged. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed by the British Parliament, intended to assert its authority over the colonies by suspending the highly resistant New York assembly (Suspension Act), and establishing the Revenue Act, Acts adding more military presence to prevent smuggling, and the Indemnity Act which lowered taxed on tea imported to England by the EIC, and gave refunds for tea tax that was exported to the colonies. The colonies heavily resisted with verbal and physical violence. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a violent outbreak between British soldiers and a mob of colonists in Massachusetts, Boston, occurring when a mob of Bostonians began attacking a British barracks, as well as a lone British soldier, with rocks and snowballs. Seven soldiers, led by Thomas Preston, were marched through the crown to rescue the soldier. In the chaos one of the soldiers discharged his weapon, leading to the rest firing into the crowd. The colonists soon demanded to remove troops from the town. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest in response to the Townshend Act in which a large group of Bostonian colonists dressed in Native American headdresses, marched to a port named "Griffin's Wharf" boarded the ships, and dumped large quantities of EIC tea into the Boston harbor. The Colonists widely celebrated the Tea Party, yet later felt it as a partial victory due to Britain instating several more policies and acts in response. -
Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
Four measures enacted (Including the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act 1774) by Britain that were meant to punish the colonies for their continued disobedience, being put into place along with the Quebec Acts. In response, the colonists brought together the First Continental Congress to discuss a large-scale approach to the British. -
Quartering Act of 1774
The Quartering Act of 1774, which applied to all colonists at the time, only slightly differed from the Quartering Act of 1765. The act also allowed royal governors, as opposed to colonial legislatures, to find quarters for British soldiers. The colonists were outraged because they felt it further took away their ability to keep British soldiers distant. -
Quebec Act
The Quebec Act was put in place in an attempt to gain the loyalty and trust of the French who lived in the Quebecian Province by preserving the seigneurial system of land tenure and French civil code and the presence of the Roman Catholic Church. The colonists, even though it wasn't directed at them, were angered because they disliked the reinstatement of the French Civil Code and the guaranteed right to practice catholicism.