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Navigation Acts
Summary-The Navigation acts place a slue of trading laws upon the colonist. A majority of those laws restricted the colonist to trading with the British keeping the money in the empire.
Cause: Economic troubles in England made the British need the Americans to buy exports from them
Effect: This would set out rules that the colonists would ignore beginning salutary neglect. -
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French and Indian war
The French and Indian War was a war between the British and French that lasted 9 years. Though the British won the war this left them in crippling dept that they needed to recover from
Effect: The war left the British very poor which prompted the implantation of taxes later on. -
Treaty of Paris
Summary-The treaty of Paris was a treaty signed by the British and French effectively ending the French and Indian war.
Cause- After many hard fought battles across the Colonies and Europe the French were defeated by the British
Effect- The treaty effectively kicked the French out of North America and gave all land east of the Mississippi to the colonies. Though the colonist fought throughout the war the British would end up not allowing the colonist to enter this newly gained land. -
Sugar Act
Summary- The sugar act was a law passed by the British which place a tax on sugar and molasses.
Cause- This act was put in place to pay back the war debt accumulated by the french and Indian war and it also aimed to end smuggling in the colonies with stricter enforcement
Effect- Americans found this very unfair as they had no say in these laws and when the war was over they weren't even allowed to access the land gained from the Treaty of Paris. -
Sons of Liberty
The sons of liberty were created as a response to the British taxes which the colonists argued were unjust. The sons of liberty used a couple of methods to reduce the purchase of taxed goods such as destroying stores who supported British goods and mass boycotts. These actions would escalate as years went on leading to destroying British ships, tarring and feathering loyalist and the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an event where a group of colonist were fired upon by British troops in the streets of Boston. 5 colonist died and other wounded the massacre not only saw a substantial rise to British resentment but propaganda that would help unify the rest of the colonies together. This event would see the removal of the Townsend act and the addition to the tea act. -
Tea Act
After the event of the Boston Massacre the Townsend act was repealed but at the brink of bankruptcy the British introduced the tea act which forced colonist to purchase tea from the east India company. The colonist who were already upset due to the Boston Massacre disapproved of this act feeling that it violated the repealing of the Townsend act. This would escalate to the Boston tea party as a direct retaliation of the act. -
Boston Tea Party
In retaliation of the tea act the Sons of Liberty devised a plan to dress as Indians and dump tea off a British ship. The sons of liberty successfully dumped around $1 million worth of tea into Boston harbor. This enraged the king who in response enacted the Intolerable acts which put Boston and surrounding areas under martial law. -
Intolerable Acts
In response to the Boston Tea Party the British enacted the Intolerable acts which did a multitude of things. It closed Boston harbor, and put Boston under martial law. This was a show of Strength by the British showing who was boss and tensions only escalated in the colonies. Many towns outside of Boston were punished creating even more British discontent outside of Boston. -
Declaration of Independence
With the first battles of the revolutionary wars taking place in Lexington and Concord the congress decided it was time to officially declare our independence from the British so the Declaration of Independence was written stating that America was now independent and gave a list of grievances committed by the British to support their decision. This document was sent to the king which was received as a joke and it helped unite the colonies under the idea that they were fighting for their freedom.
