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French and Indian War ends
The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian war and gave control of all French land in North America to England. They had completely driven out of North America and the Mississippi River had became the boundary between the British and The Spanish. -
The Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was placed to make colonist pay taxes on all sugar products to pay off the dept the British owed for the damage during the French and Indian War. Which caused them to boycott of luxury goods imported from Great Britain. -
The Stamp Act
This act required the colonist to pay taxes for all paper products. It had been passed for the same reason the sugar act was, it was to pay off their dept and increase their defense. They colonist were fairly angry about this due to the fact that it was passed by Parliament and not their own colonial government. -
The Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was placed to force the colonies to provide British soldiers with housing and food. This was in response to increase in the empire defense costs. Since they was not much money they wanted to use it on getting better defense. They had to have the colonist spend their money to take care of the soldiers. -
Enlightenment Ideas
On this date is when the Virginia House of Burgesses had excepted only a few of Patrick Henry's ideas but the colonial newspapers believed that all of his ideas were passed so the printed out all of them and sent them around causing other colonies to use ideas similar to Henry's. -
Patriot Leaders Emerge
Anyone who opposed the Stamp Act was called patriots. They attacked anyone who supported or collected the taxes, more violently in Boston. In august 1765, they had destroyed the office and the house of the stamp tax collector, which caused Thomas Hutchinson to jump in and try to convince them to pay the taxes. The crowd had became angrier and destroyed his house as well. After all the crowds had attacked them, no one had even though about supporting it. All collectors had resigned due to this. -
Leaders Organize a Boycott
Nine colonies sent delegates to a Stamp Act Congress held in New York City in October 1765. The congress encouraged a consumer boycott of goods imported from Britain. Women play an important economic role in the boycotts. When colonists stop buying British goods, they needed "homespun" cloth to substitute for British-manufactured cloth. The combination of tactics worked, and the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766. But Parliament also passed an act declaring its rights to levy taxes on the colonists. -
Violence Erupts in Boston
Massachusetts register leader issued a circular litter denouncing the Township and duties. Five colonists were killed by British soldiers guarding the customs house in March 1770. Samuel Adams later organized a network of local committees of correspondence throughout Massachusetts. The committees provided leadership and promoted cooperation. -
The Boston Tea Party
In 1773, the British East India Company was forced to sell tea directly to the colonists to encourage them to pay tax. The colonists protested that the company was trying to trick them into paying the tax. Boston Patriots boarded three ships laden with tea and dumped the tea into the harbor. The event became known as the Boston Tea Party. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battle of Lexington was the start of the American War of Independence. The day before the battle had started, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arm cache.