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The End of the French and Indian War
After the French and Indian War, Britain signed the Treaty of Paris in 1763. This made the colonists very angry as this limited how much land they took from the Native Americans and they now had to deal with the majority of the war debt. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act of 1764 taxed imports from the Caribbean at 3 cents per gallon. Many colonizers were upset because they took away the colonies power away to hold trials against smugglers in America. -
Stamp Act
In 1765, all printed material had to have a British stamp, which included every document printed by lawyers and journalists. In response, colonists created the Stamp Act Congress which ultimately decided to boycott British goods. -
Declaratory Act
The act was King George the Third saying that he could tax the colonists and they couldn’t do anything about it. The colonists were actually happy because they revoked the Stamp Act and put this in its place for a time. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of customs that heavily targeted smugglers and sent them to England to be put on trial. The colonists again began boycotting the act, with even the women joining in by replacing British clothing with homemade ones. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act was a tax on the British-East India Trading Company tea which actually lowered the price of tea. However, this upset the colonists because they were afraid of the cuts in profit for merchants and smugglers, but also the principal that Britain could tax whatever the colonists used the most. -
Start of the American Revolution
On April 19, 1775, after a year of boycotting taxes and Britain in general, a battle broke out between British soldiers and Massachusetts militiamen. The colonists were split as some were hesitant about gaining independence while others thought it was extremely important.