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End of French and Indian War
The French gave up all land East of the Mississippi and also in Canada (Quebec and Arcadia). The French went down to New Orleans where it was conquered by the Spanish. All land that France claimed that wa.s West of Mississippi was taken over by the Spanish. Many of the French soliders sat and waited until the American Revoulution They had to join the Continental army because most of the colonial militias wouldn't take the Catholics. -
Tax on Sugar
British Parliament passes the Sugar Act, extending the tax on foreign molasses imported into the American colonies and imposing new or higher taxes on several other non-British goods, such as coffee. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains (10,000 troops were to be stationed on the -
The Quaetering Act of 1765
AN ACT to amend and render more effectual, in his Majesty's dominions in America, an act passed in this present session of parliament, intituled, An act for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters. -
The Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was copied from the Irish Declaratory Act, and it won’t take a genius to learn that Parliament would want America, like the Irish, in continuous bondage to the crown. Outcries and outrage followed suit. Colonists called it many things, some of which included “crisis” and “treason.” -
The Townshen Revenue Act
Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea were applied with the design of raising 40,000 a year for the administration of the colonies. The result was the resurrection of colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act.
Reaction assumed revolutionary proportions in Boston, in the summer of 1768, when customs officials impounded a sloop owned by John Hancock, for violations of the trade regulations. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and -
The Boston Tea Party
Three British ships in Boston harbor in which Boston colonists disguised theirselves as Indians threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the control granted the East India Company. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The first shots starting the revolution were fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. On April 18, 1775, British General Thomas Gage sent 700 soldiers to destroy guns and ammunition the colonists had stored in the town of Concord, just outside of Boston. They also planned to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two of the key leaders of the patriot movement.
