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End of French and Indian War
The French and Indian War ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). Britain was able to win the war and gain the land of Canada, the Great Lakes country, the Ohio River valley, and Florida. France lost most of their land in North America. A group of Native Americans planned a last attack but they were overpowered by the British.This led the British to give some land to the Native Americans and not allow any colonists to enter that specific piece of land. This was known as the Proclamation of 1763. -
New Taxes
The Seven Years' War left one major effect on Britain and that was the amount of debt that they had. However Britain decides to solve their debt issue by taxing the colonist more money because they protected the colonist during the war. This led to Britain creating the Sugar, Quartering, and Stamp Act. The colonist were not happy with those acts as they believed that they were taxed a lot of money and that they had no representatives in Parliament who could have opposed the idea to tax them. -
Colonial leaders boycott
A few colonial leaders wanted to protest but there was a chance that the crowds might get too violent during the protest.So each of the 9 colonies decided to send a few representatives to a Congress meeting located in New York City. The representatives planned a boycott against imports from Britain. A group of women helped with this boycott as they would create cloth to give the colonist.This would help the boycotts in many ways. These groups of women were known as the Daughters of Liberty. -
Enlightenment Ideas
Colonist began to protest due to the taxes that the British placed on them. The protests brought up the idea of Enlightenment which from two European writers. Those two were Baron de Montesquieu ad John Locke. John Locke believed that government is a good thing for people, but people should be able to protest against the government if the government goes against natural rights. One person named Patrick Henry used this to come up with the Virginia resolves which, was adopted in 8 colonies. -
Protests against new taxes
The colonist have shown that they will protest against taxes, but Britain still has a debt to pay off. This leads to Charles Townshend, who was a financial officer, coming up with the idea that the colonist should be taxed indirectly. This causes Parliament to have the Townshend Acts, which forces new imports on regular items. The colonist, however claimed that they would not pay any new taxes to the the British and they rejected any plans of the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Massacre
During a night in March 1770, a few colonist decided to throw snowballs at a few British soldiers. The soldiers were worried about this so they shot into a crowd of colonists. This resulted in the death of 5 colonists. Due to the killings, Samuel Adams called it the Boston Massacre. Adams responded to this by creating a network full of committees who were cooperative.This led to other colonies having committees who were able to provide a sense of unity. -
Boston Tea Party
Due to some financial trouble that Britain was dealing with, Parliament passed a law that stated that the British East India Company was allowed to sell tea to the colonist. The tea was also cheaper. However, the colonist thought that the British were trying to pull a trick against them. So the Boston Patriots decided to disguise themselves as Indians and then they would drop all of the tea that was on a ship into the water. This was their way of protesting against the British. -
First Continental Congress (There was a error with this part so it wouldn't let me add a picture)
During the fall, every colony except for Georgia had sent a few delegates to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were meeting each other in order to attend the First Continental Congress. One of the main goals that was announced during the congress meeting was to "pressure Parliament to withdraw the Coercive Acts." The name for America was also decided during the meeting by John Adams. He also believed that if all of the Americans can work together than they can defeat the British. -
Intolerable Acts
Britain was not happy with the colonists boycotts. So they decided create the Intolerable Acts. These acts forced colonists to have British soldiers stay in their homes and that British soldiers would be trialed for crime in Britain. Another effect was that the British extended the border of southern Canada which takes away a few pieces of land away from the colonists. The colonist of Massachusetts had a violent reaction as they had clubs and guns ready. They were later punished. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord (The link in the description is the description for this part of the timeline)
