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The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was a conflict between the English and the French. The war began because both countries were trying to establish colonies, which led to some conflict, and eventually war. The French were attacked by the British, which escalated into a war that would go on to last 7 years. Each side had their own advantageous and disadvantageous periods during the war, which eventually ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. -
The Proclamation of 1763
At the end of the French and Indian War, the British issued this proclamation to please the Native Americans and to prevent any further exploration. The British Empire tightened control over the colonies, preventing anyone except licensed traders to go past the colony borders west, to protect the Natives from the settlers, and to protect the settlers from the Natives. The colonists didn't love it because it cut them off from obtaining better farmland. -
The Sugar Act
This act was imposed as a way to end the smuggling of molasses and sugar from the West Indies. The taxes were to be used to support the British military. The protected price of sugar actually helped the New England distilleries, but no one really liked it. The shipmasters especially didn't like it because it meant that their shiploads were subject to confiscation and investigation by the British. -
The Stamp Act of 1766
The Stamp Act of 1766 was passed by the British Parliament as a way to collect revenue for Britain. The empire was in heavy debt from the French and Indian War, so they began taxing all paper in the American colonies. The colonists argued that only their representatives could tax them, so the Parliament repealed the act, only to impose another one, basically saying that they could do whatever they wanted. -
The Townshend Acts of 1767
The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed by the British Parliament to tax all goods imported into the American colonies. The colonists had previously been paying less than one-twentieth of the taxes that the British citizens paid. The colonists didn't appreciate the acts because they saw them as an abuse of the Parliament's power. Following protests and violence, the Parliament repealed the acts in 1770. -
The Boston Massacre
Tensions in Boston had been growing between the British and the colonists. After all of the taxes and acts, the city seemed ready to burst. It finally happened when some colonists got upset at a British soldier and were yelling at him. After a little bit of escalation, the soldier called for reinforcements. Some of the colonists challenged the British to fire, others pled against it. Someone said fire, and then the guns shot. 5 were killed in what some people call the start of the war. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act was imposed in 1773 after the Townshend Act failed, trying to appease the colonists. Some colonists drank smuggled tea, which hurt the British economy. The Tea Act said that ships importing tea didn't have to stop in England, which lowered the price of importing the tea. This was supposed to make the colonists drink the legally imported tea, but it ended up causing more boycotts and the Boston Tea Party. -
The Boston Tea Party
Following the Tea Act, the colonists were kind of upset. They didn't trust the British to be honest in lowering the price of tea. On December 16, 1773, they held a protest. A group called the Sons of Liberty held meetings rallying against the British and on that December night, a large group of men stormed the ships dressed like Native Americans and destroyed all the tea, throwing some 342 chests of tea in the water. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a group of acts that gave the British a lot of control and limited a lot of things that the colonists could do. The first act closed the Boston Harbor until the tea from the Boston Tea Party was paid off. Another act changed the way that the Boston government worked, and the things that they could do had to be done with consent. Britain also passed an act that changed the way trials worked. The fourth act allowed for housing for British soldiers. -
The First Continental Congress
After the Intolerable Acts, delegates from each colony met in Pennsylvania to discuss imports and exports. They decided in September that they didn't want Britain to be able to import anything. Later they decided that they also wouldn't export anything to Britain. It was also the Continental Congress that declared America's independence from Britain, starting the Revolutionary War.