Causes of the American Revolution

  • Navigation acts

    Navigation acts

    The Navigation Acts were designed to regulate colonial trade and enabled England to collect duties (taxes) in the Colonies.
  • French and Indian War

    French and Indian War

    By the mid 18th century, both the British and French wanted to extend their North American colonies into the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, known then as the Ohio Territory. Indians side with the French and after 7 years of battling France and Britain signed a peace treaty.
  • Proclamation of 1763

    Proclamation of 1763

    Britain forbade all colonial settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains.
  • Sugar act

    Sugar act

    A law passed by British Parliament where colonists could only buy sugar from British sugar growers in the West Indies making them a monopoly on the colonial market.
  • Stamp Act

    Stamp Act

    British Parliament imposed a stamp duty on things like newspapers and legal documents.
  • Quartering act

    Quartering act

    Britain tried to force the colonies to house over 1,500 British soldiers, colonist completely refused and the soldiers had to sleep on ships.
  • Sons/Daughters of Liberty

    Sons/Daughters of Liberty

    Protest groups, who originally formed because of the Stamp Act, who helped organize boycotts. They tarred and feathered British tax collectors.
  • Declaratory act

    Declaratory act

    Britain repealed the stamp act, and then declared that thy can tax anything with an announcement
  • Townshend Acts

    Townshend Acts

    The British put a tax on lead, paper, paint and tea.
  • Boston Massacre

    Boston Massacre

    A group of Boston civilians began insulting and throwing snowballs at a British guard, more soldiers arrived. A mob of civilians surrounded soldiers in protest, and in the confusion the soldiers fired their guns, leaving 5 colonists dead.
  • Committees of Corespondence

    Committees of Corespondence

    The Committees of Correspondence rallied colonial opposition against British policy and established a political union among the Thirteen Colonies.
  • Tea Act

    Tea Act

    Britain was making colonists pay a tax on Tea. Britain created this act because the East India company was becoming poor.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party

    Because the British made the Tea Act, colonists invaded British ships and threw all of their tea overboard into the Boston Harbor.
  • Intolerable Acts

    Intolerable Acts

    The British closed Boston ports and limited town meetings. Also trials now can only take place in Britain, and colonists were forced to house British Soldiers.
  • First Continental Congress

    First Continental Congress

    Sons of Liberty set up a committee in each colony. The committee was made up of Anti-British leaders. Paul Revere invited everyone to a meeting to plan a unified response to Britain.
  • Second Continental Congress

    Second Continental Congress

    The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence
  • Battle of Lexington and Concord

    Battle of Lexington and Concord

    British troops are sent to confiscate colonial weapons, they run into an untrained and angry militia. This ragtag army defeats 700 British soldiers and the surprise victory bolsters their confidence for the war ahead.
  • Battle of Bunker Hill

    Battle of Bunker Hill

    Boston was being besieged by thousands of American militia. The British were trying to keep control of the city and control its valuable sea ports.
  • Thomas Paine's Common Sense

    Thomas Paine's Common Sense

    Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.