...American Revolution? Please provide a chronological overview of the key events that led to increasing colonial discontent up until the outbreak of the American Revolution. 1763-1775 • Consequences of the French- Indian War- British broke > impose taxes on colonists > the salty war veteran colonists unhappy • Grenville taxes- Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Quartering Act • Proclamation of 1763- called for no expansion after colonists had just fought for land for 9 years • Colonists respond > Stamp Act Congress, Sons of Liberty, etc > British back off • (British and colonist tension due to presence of British troops in the colonies who took low wage jobs, get drunk, “date your sister” > Boston Massacre - colonists use propaganda which stirs up more colonial discontent • Tea Act 1773- high quality tea at a low price which affects and angers the merchant class (whom have power), • Boston Tea Party- merchants dress up as Indians during the night, sneak on British ships and dump the tea into the Boston harbor > British not willing to back-down this time because they saw it as a challenge of their authority • British respond with Coercive Acts- colonists called “Intolerable Acts” > brings up debate to colonists of “self governing” • Colonists respond by calling First Continental Congress > friendships and alliances made > embrace Virginia Resolves • British lead colonists are forming militia and storing gunpowder send troops to intervene > Lexington and Concord • Second Continental Congress: First met...
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...The Effect of Early Colonial Legislation The early settlers in the New World were subject to many different laws and acts of legislation passed by the British government. Most of which were meant to help the King and England rather than support the colonies ability to be a free and self-governing people. Some of the legislation like the Stamp Act was passed to help England recoup its losses from the French Indian War. Although some like the Coercive Act contained a series of legislative tactics meant to punish colonists for going against or acting against the King or the mother land. Both of these acts were purposeful and against the colonists and only for the benefit of England. The French and Indian War caused the British government to go into a tremendous amount of debt. This debt had to be recovered somehow. So parliament decided that they would create a tax on the colonies to help recover some of the money lost. The Stamp Act was the British Parliaments attempt to take governmental authority over the colonies. The Stamp Act created a tax or duty on different types of documents printed on paper including “… legal documents, business papers, licenses, pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, printed sermons, playing cards, and dice” (Reich, 2011 Ch. 25 Para 17). For instance the act stated that any piece of parchment that was “…engrossed, written, or printed, any declaration, plea, replication, rejoinder, demurrer or other pleading, or any copy thereof; in any court of law within...
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...looked to the colonies for assistance in paying off their bills with more taxes upon the colonies. In the early 1760’s, bickering and arguments between the colonists and England occurred. A large part of the problem was the Stamp Act. This policy from England imposed high taxes on the colonists without any representation in Parliament. The colonies, which once struggled to get along without bickering, began to unite themselves and push back on the Crown. Groups such as the Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty were formed. The colonists imposed a boycott on English goods and refused to use the stamps on legal documents that were required under the Stamp Act. England was surprised by the colonist’s reactions and repealed it in March 1766. In 1767, Charles Townsend was named Prime Minister of England. Colonists were hopeful he would be their supporter because he had opposed both the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. Those hopes quickly faded when he imposed upon the colonies the Quartering Act of 1765, which required the colonial legislature to pay for supplies needed by British troops. New York protested but Prime Minister Townsend threatened them with nullifying all laws passed by the colony if they did not agree to follow and support the Quartering Act. This threat gave concern to...
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...colonies and later to become the United States of America. It was comprised of delegates from the colonies which met in 1774 to the reaction of the Coercive Acts which were a series of measures imposed by the British government on the colonies in response to their resistance to the new taxes imposed by the British. The American dream is built upon a foundation of struggles and gains, along with more struggles. A look back to early American history provides one with a timeline that seems endless and full of surprises. The First Continental Congress serves as one of those timeline markers and is a great example of the American way. Being one of the first meetings ever between the colonists, Congress laid one of the first bricks into the foundation of America. The First Continental Congress made its mark in history on September 5, 1774 in Philadelphia’s Carpenters Hall. The idea of such a meeting was advanced a year earlier by Benjamin Franklin, but failed to gain much support until after the Port of Boston was closed in response to the Boston Tea Party. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representatives to this secret meeting, “Georgia decided against roiling the waters; they were facing attacks from the restive Creek on their borders and desperately needed the support of regular British soldiers.” The Intolerable Acts of 1774 greatly fueled the First Continental Congress. In response to the Boston Tea party, the British Parliament decided that a series of laws were needed...
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...Nobody would have imagined the British would pass four laws that could enrage the colonists so much. Because the colonists despise these acts, they named them the Intolerable Acts. These acts limit the freedom of colonists. The act was created as a result of the night of the Boston Tea Party. Colonists dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The Tea Act is unlawful, and it should not have been passed as a law by the British. The Intolerable Acts The first act passed on June 1, 1774 was called “The Boston Port Act”. This law closed the Boston Harbor to all trade. Boston’s economy is devastated. Everyone in the city has been punished. Secondly, the “Massachusetts Government Act”, passed later this summer, prevented citizens...
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...Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution * The Deep Roots of Revolution * Two ideas taken root in the minds of murican colonists (18th century) * REPUBLICANISM : defined a just society as one in which all citizens willingly subordinated their private, selfish interests to the common good * Both stability of society and authority of government depended on virtue of citizenry (its capacity for selflessness, self-sufficiency, and courage, especially its appetite for civic involvement * Opposed to hierarchical and authoritarian institutions such as aristocracy and monarchy * “RADICAL WHIGS”: British political commentators * Feared threat to liberty posed by the arbitrary power of the monarch and his ministers relative to elected representatives in parliament * Mounted attacks on use of patronage and bribes by king’s ministers * Symptoms of wider moral failure in society - “corruption” * Dukes and princes = unknown in colonies * Property ownership and political participations were relatively widespread * Murices unmolested by remote officials in London * Distance weakens authority * Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances * British authority embraced theory - MERCANTILISM * Justified their control over colonies * Mercantilists believed that wealth = power and country’s economic wealth could be measured by amount of gold or silver, a country needed to export more...
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...The British government had to pay back the money to the Dutch. The British government was already in debt and by the end of the war the debt was nearly doubled. The money the British government borrowed also had interest so the debt would keep increasing if not paid back immediately. A solution that the British government propose was to tax the colonies and they taxed the colonies through passing a set of policies and acts. These policies are the Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Declaratory Act (1765), The Townshend Act (1767), The Tea Act (1773), and the Intolerable Acts...
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...Notes on the British Acts People came to America seeking religious independence and economic success. Instead, British rule prevented them from experiencing freedom in taxation, land ownership, and government. Without consideration of the colonists, the British established several "Acts" of taxation. Proclamation of 1763: It closed the frontier of colonial expansion and the colonists thought that all they have been working for was going to be for nothing. The Quartering Act: Ordered the local government to give housing to and provisions for the British soldiers. Sugar Act Act to raise fund on sugar and wine. Stamp Act: A tax on every piece of printed paper like news paper and legal documents. Though the tax wasn’t big they thought it was rude to tax them on paper and unfair. They thought it would lead to bigger taxes. The Intolerable Acts: The Intolerable Acts was a name used to describe a series of act passed by the British Parliament . These acts caused outrage in the 13 colonies which lead to resistance. The quartering act, the sugar act, and the stamp act where all intolerable acts. These where the acts that lead to the revolutionary war. There were many years when the Colonists were ignored by Britain. The colonists became accustomed to the laws they created themselves. When the British discovered the colonists did not obey their laws and instead were governing themselves, they tried to enforce the old laws. By the late 1700's...
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...Trade and Mercantilism were introduced to the colonies and to the English government. The colonists believed that their power is hidden in free trade and were motivated by self-interest, which they believed would help to develop a strong economic strength. The English Government on the other hand, saw the opportunity to limit the colonies trade and shift it to go through them. Starting at 1660, the English government enforced 4 navigation acts. The 4 acts were dealing with the way to trade and were limiting the colonist to choose a carrier for the goods, transferring good from one colony to the other, receiving goods from foreign ships and lastly creating a custom system which will be regulated by England. Those acts were forced on the colonies and therefore a black market was created and this was the first act the England had put down on the colonies but maybe that was the first act that helped the colonies to realize that they are becoming an important economic power which will do much better on its own. The Stamp Act (1765) was the first act that really drove the colonies into thinking that they might be...
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...The Growing Tension between Great Britain and the Colonies HIS/110 2/7/2014 Charles Salter The Growing Tension between Great Britain and the Colonies The onset of the American Revolution was something did not occur overnight. There were many significant events that lead to the American Revolution over several decades. More than a few decades of being taxed, but receiving no representation in the British Parliament began to irritate citizens of the newly founded America. Some of the most prominent events were the French and Indian War, Tea Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act and Coercive Acts. These events eventually sparked the American Revolution when the Colonial people decided they wanted to be free of British ruling (Brinkley, 2007). French and Indian War What motivated the British the most in the French and Indian war was the acquisition of land and generating revenue. The British parliament had depleted a large portion of its funds over several decades of war with other countries. They had knew they had to protect the newly acquired land in present day America because of the wealthy export business potential. The British had more to offer the Indian tribes than their French competitors, which made them a threat to the French. The British had a bad reputation with most Indian tribes because of their unwillingness to cooperate. The Indian tribes viewed the British as arrogant people because they imposed their ways on the Indians rather than accepting...
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...Harbor until all of the 340 chests of British East India Company tea were paid for. 3. The implication and impact of the Boston Tea Party were enormous ultimately leading to the start of the American Revolution which began in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. 4. Many of the Boston Tea Party participants fled Boston immediately after the event to avoid arrest. The Intolerable Acts 4 After Effects 1. American colonists responded with protests and coordinated resistance by convening the First Continental Congress in September and October of 1774 to petition Britain to repeal the Intolerable Acts. 2. The first was the Boston Port Bill and it closed the Boston Harbor until the people of Boston paid for the tea that they threw into the harbor. It went into effect on June 1, 1774. 3. The Administration of Justice Act became effective May 20th and it did not allow British soldiers to be tried in the colonies for any crimes they might commit. This meant the soldiers could do anything they wanted since they would probably not be punished for their crimes. 4. The Massachusetts Government Act which also took effect on May 20, 1774, restricted town meetings to one a year unless the governor approved any more. The Massachusetts assembly could not meet. The governor would appoint all the officials, juries and sheriffs. The Battles of Lexington and Concord 4 After Effects 1. For the colonists, 49 were killed, 39 were wounded, and five were missing. For the British...
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...DBQ As the thirteen original colonies approached revolution, new attitudes began to emerge among the populace. Enlightenment thought gave rise to new perceptions of freedom, liberty, and natural rights, which many American colonists espoused with great vigor. Thus, people within the colonies began to see themselves not as subjects of the British crown, but as free men of an independent nation. This compelled the colonies to unite against a common enemy, Great Britain. Therefore, between 1750 and 1776, general perceptions of American sovereignty began to change, and a unique American identity emerged among a newly united nation. This new identity compelled many Americans at the time, and still pervades the very fabric of modern American society....
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