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French & Indian War ( Seven Years War )
The French and Indian War was very influencial. It was mostly fought between the French and British with Indians caught in the mix. They were fighting because one country wanted the other out of the country for land and rivalry reasons. The war was won by the British but they ended up with an $8 million war debt. They used the colonist as scapegoats for the war saying that they pushed into land to far. So Britian charged the colonists with paying Britian back for their $8 million war debt. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was the second tax put into place to repay the war debt. The Stamp Act issued a tax on all written documents. The tax ranged from one cent for a newspaper to ten dollars for a college diploma. The main problem that the colonist had with this is that it was a direct tax. Instead of an indirect tax like the Sugar Act, this was direct and the colonists could see it. -
Boston Massacre
No one is really sure of what happened here but because of the confusion during the event. It started out with a couple of boys making fun of about seven soldiers and throwing snowballs at them. Soon the intensity picked up when numerous adults joined in and later a mob may have formed. The soldiers were greatly outnumbered and may of heard, "FIRE", because there may of been a fire at the time. Five Americans were killed but was used as propaganda saying it was a massacre killing many more. -
Boston Tea Party
The Americans were getting very upset with being taxed and angry about the tax on tea. A number of Americans came up with the idea of dressing as indians and raiding British cargo ships. The cargo ships were stocked with tea which is pretty much the coffee of today. They boarding each ship and broke crates and dumped A LOT of tea into the harbor so much that the water stayed brown for a month. It helped show that they were not afraid to and had the ability to rebel against a powerul force. -
Intolerable Acts
The two worst Intolerable acts were the 2nd Quartering Act and the Administration of Justice Act. The 2nd Quartering Act angered all of the Americans becasue now soldiers could be housed in occupied private guildings. The Americans beleived in search warrants and this violated their right. The Administration of Justice Act pretty much had all legal problems with British officials to be taken care of in Britian. Which meant that they would most likely be let off the hook. -
Lexington & Concord
The British wanted to stop all rebellion so they sent troops to seize rebel leaders and munitions. The plan was bad because they landed and marched through a marsh. Because of this they were slow so they were spotted by an spy network who passed on the info very fast. Militia men formed and skirmished with the force. All of the munitions were moved. Many more British were killed on their way back. More British were killed then Americans so they beleived they could fight the British. -
Declaration of Independence
On July 4th, 1776 Thomas Jefferson proposed his draft of the Declaration of Independence. That day Americans declared independenced from Britian and because of that they declared war with Britian. The Declaration of Independence created the United States of America.