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Jamestown was important because it was the first English settlement in the new world.
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The Virginia House of Burgesses were significant because they were the first democratically-elected legislative body in the American colonies.
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The Mayflower Compact was the first attempt at self government in American History. The colonists agreed to choose their leaders obey laws in which they agreed to follow.
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Bacon's Rebellion was important because it was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part.
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The Salem Witch Trials were important because the foreshadowed the fragility of society when they were a perceived threat.
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The War provided Britain with great territorial gains in North America. Disputes erupted over frontier policy and paying the debt caused by the war led to colonial discontent and eventually the American Revolution.
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The Proclamation of 1763 was enacted to fairly solve the problem with the Native Americans. It prohibited any settler from moving west of the Appalachian mountains.
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The Sugar Act was the first tax on American colonists. Its purpose was to raise revenue through colonial customs service and to give the customs agents more power/latitude in the law by executing seizures and enforcing the law.
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This new tax was imposed on American colonists and required them to pay a tax on all printed materials
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The Quartering Act forced the American colonists to house British soldiers in their homes and taxed them to pay for provisions and barracks for the army. An army that the colonists thought was unnecessary during peacetimes.
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The Townshend Acts were significant because they helped reignite anger that the colonists had against England. The colonists saw taxation without representation as an abuse of power.
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The Boston Massacre is important because British soldiers killed American colonists. This event infuriated the colonists and led to campaign speech-writers to rouse the ire of citizenry.
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The Committees of Correspondence were important because they set up the First Continental Congress. They also served a vital role in the Revolution by disseminating the colonial interpretation of British actions between colonial and foreign governments.
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The Tea Act was designed to bail the East India Company and expand the company's monopoly on tea trade to all British colonies.
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The Boston Tea Party is important because of the way Britain and America reacted to this protest. The British government was furious about the actions of the colonists and therefore passed the Intolerable Acts, closed the Boston harbor and took away their self government until all of the tea was paid for. The colonists only hated the British more after these consequences and people in all 13 colonies were angry.
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The Intolerable Acts were important because they were a contributing factor to the American Revolution. Colonists felt that this legislation violated their rights as human beings and their rights as Englishmen.
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The First Continental Congress was the first compact among the American colonies. They met in reaction to the Coercive Acts which were measures imposed by the British government in response to colonial resistance to the regulations.
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The battles of Lexington and Concord were significant because they were the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
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The Olive Branch Petition was important because it was an attempt to assert the rights of the colonists while maintaining their loyalty to the British crown.
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The Declaration of Independence is important because it contains the first ideals/ goals of our nation. It contains the complaints of the colonists against the British King. It also explains why the colonists wished to seek freedom from the British rule.