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Proclamation of 1763
This proclamation did not allow the colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountians. The British government feared that if the colonists settled there, there would be war with the Native Americans. They also could not afford to pay British troops to defend the western lands. Colonists were enraged by this proclamation because they felt they had won the right to settle in the Ohio River Valley after winning the French and Indian War. -
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The Road to Revolution
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Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was passed by Parliament to help Britian not go further into debt. This act allowed British soliders to "quarter" or house in the colonists' homes. It also made the colonists provide them with any supplies they required or wanted. The commander, Gerneral Thomas Gage, put most of the troops in New York. -
Stamp Act
This act or law was established and stated that all legal commercial documents must hold an official stamp. This stamp showed that the document's taxes had been paid. The Stamp Act made it so that the official stamp was put on all wills, diplomas, contracts and even the newspaper had to be printed on a special stamped paper. This did not just affect one group of colonists, it nearly applied to all colonists. -
Townshend Acts
Theseacts placed many taxes on items the colonies all needed such as: glass, paper, paint, lead and tea. Parliament thought that if they collected taxes on things before they entered the colonies, it would not anger the colonists as much as something more direct like the Stamp Act. Officers would even enter homes with search warrents to look for smuggled goods to enforce this act. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea party was an event organized by the Sons of Liberty. Their idea was to block off all tea ships from docking in harbors all across the colonies and boycott the taxed tea to show how strongly the colonists opposed the taxes. On December 16, 1773, a group of men disguised as Native Americans boarded three tea ships, all docked in Boston Harbor. That night they destryoed in total 342 crates of tea, worth over 1 million dollars today. -
The Intolerable Acts
Britian was furious about what happened at the Boston Tea Party, so Parliament decided to put a series of laws on Massachusetts as a warning to the other colonies. The laws included: The closure of the Boston port; the ban on Committees of Correspondence; allowing Britains to quarter wherever necessary; and allowing British officials accused of crimes to stand trial in Britain. These laws were so severe that the colonists gave them the name, "The Intolerable Acts." -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
These battles were the very ones that started the Revolutionary War. At Lexington, "The Shot Heard Around the World" was the very shot that started the war to break out, and still no one knows who shot it. At Lexington and Concord it was first the British had started off strong but at the end of this battle it was the British who were retreating. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was a document that asked the King to restore harmony and peace between the colonies and England. Some people still didn't want to sign the petition but signed it anyway, as a last resort. The King rejected this petition and assigned new laws and punishments towards the colonies. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was the charter that made it so the colonies would be independent from England. There were a number of people who made the Declaration including: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Rodger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. On July 4, 1776 the colonies finally declared their independence from England.