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Period: to
Revolution
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French and Indian War Ends
The French and Indian War was a war between the French and natives, against the Colonies and British. It started because of disputes with land claims between the French and British colonies and ended with a loss for the French against the British. Because of the debt Britain acquired from the war, they started being more strict with laws in the colonies. This ended salutary neglect and created the Proclamation of 1763. -
Salutary Neglect Ends
Salutary neglect was a period of time where Britain didn’t enforce any of the laws they put on the colonies. This left the colonies to smuggle in goods that would have been taxed. This also gave the colonies more freedom with creating their own laws. After the French and Indian War, Britain needed to pay off the heavy amounts of debt from the war, so they started enforcing the laws the colonies weren’t following. This created a lot of tension between the colonies and the British. -
Proclamation of 1763
An order by King George III that forbids Americans from settling west of the Appalachian mountains. This was created at the end of the French and Indian War. One of the main goals of the war was to capture the Ohio River Valley, an area rich in resources. After years of warfare, the Americans believed that they had earned the right to settle and harvest this land. However, the Proclamation specifically forbids this, which many Americans took as a violation of their inherent right to property. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was created to raise money to pay off war debt from the French and Indian War. It was made with the goal of reducing smuggling in the colonies because acts like the Molasses Act, which put a tax on molasses, weren’t enforced. Even with the Sugar Act being a smaller tax than the Molasses Act, because the colonists would avoid the tax altogether with smuggled goods, it added onto the tensions from the Proclamation of 1763. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was another money-raising act. It put a tax on all printing goods like newspapers, playing cards, and dice. This was met heavily with protests and aggression. This is the act when colonists started tarring and feathering the tax collectors. This is also when the phrase “taxation without representation” became popular in the colonies. Because of this act, tensions increased throughout the next five years, leading to the Boston Massacre. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an event ending in the deaths of five colonists. While the event itself was fairly small, it was used for anti-British propaganda. Artists and writers like Paul Revere spread information about the event throughout the colonies. The Boston Massacre caused a big change in the colonists' opinion of the British. -
Tea Act
In order to save the East India Company, the Tea Act was made and put on the colonies. This act gave the East India Company the ability to sell their tea directly to the colonies. This resulted in many merchants losing money, creating more protests, boycotts, and aggression against the British soldiers. This act also caused one of the biggest acts of defiance against the British pre-revolution; the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
In an act of defiance against Britain because of the Tea Act, a group of colonists, including some from the Sons of Liberty, dressed up as Natives and dumped tons of British tea into the Boston Harbor. The amount of money lost from this event totaled over 1.5 million dollars in today's money. To punish the colonists, the British parliament passed the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts are a group of acts made by the British parliament to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. It is made up of the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. After this was passed, each colony sent delegates to the First Continental Congress to discuss a nationwide boycott on all British goods until the Intolerable Acts get repealed. -
The battles of Lexington and Concord
Being the first battle of the American Revolution, the Battles of Lexington and Concord had a heavy influence on the results of the war. The battle started when roughly 700 British soldiers marched to Concord to seize a colonist arms cache. Because of the colonists' knowledge of the terrain and reasons for fighting, they were able to force the British to retreat. As the British outnumbered and out-skilled the colonists, this victory was a huge morale boost for the colonists.