CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

USH3 – Unit 2

FRENCH & INDIAN WAR

• British defeat the French in war over

territory in the Ohio River Valley.

• French ally w/ Natives

• British & Colonists

• Ben Franklin urges colonies to unite

against the French – Albany Plan

• Colonists felt like they supported

the British

• British felt they didn’t do enough

FRENCH & INDIAN WAR

PONTIAC’S REBELLION & PROCLAMATION OF 1763

• Colonists began to move

westward

• Conflict w/ the Natives

• Pontiac’s Rebellion (failed)

• British crown forbids colonists

from moving west to avoid future

conflicts

• Colonists were upset they couldn’t

move west b/c that was reserved

as “Indian Territory”

SUGAR ACT

• Import tax placed on sugar entering the colonies from non-British Caribbean islands

• Tax was intended to raise revenue & limit smuggling

• Tax was high enough to give British a monopoly on sugar

• “No taxation w/o representation” – shouldn’t have to pay taxes if we have no say

STAMP ACT

• Colonists required to get stamps on

legal documents, newspapers, & other

paper products

• Later repealed b/c it brought in little

revenue

• Colonists boycotted (most common

form of resistance)

SONS & DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY

• Secret society – organized

boycotts & worked to protect

rights of colonists

• Large scale anti-British

movement

• Representatives from each

colony

TOWNSHEND ACTS

• Tax on glass, paper, lead, tea,

and paint & they must be

purchased from Britain

• Colonists boycott those goods

• “No taxation w/o

representation”

COLONIAL RES ISTANCE

BOSTON MASSACRE

• A group of British soldiers

opened fire on protestors in

Boston

• 5 people killed

• Colonists were enraged &

used propaganda to create

anti-British sentiments

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

• Rallied colonial opposition

• Making plans for a revolution

• Est First Continental Congress

• FCC – sent a letter to King

George explaining the issues

they had w/ how they were

treated

• Formed a militia (minutemen)

TEA ACT & BOSTON TEA PARTY

• Gives a monopoly to British

East India Tea Company to

boost revenue

• Colonists saw this as another

form of “taxation w/o

representation”

• Sons of Liberty organized

Boston Tea Party

INTOLERABLE ACTS (AKA COERCIVE ACTS)

• Punishment for BTP

• Closed Boston Harbor

• Expanded Quartering Act

• Violators will be tried in British

courts

• Colonists feel this is the last

straw

THOMAS PAINE’S COMMON SENSE

• Encouraged colonists to declare their independence

• Ideas of independence spring from the Enlightenment

• 2nd Continental Congress will later draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776

• Natural rights (Locke) included

• Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness

LEXINGTON & CONCORD

• British troops march to

Concord to seize colonial

stock pile of weapons

• Paul Revere’s “Midnight Ride”

• Minutemen respond…8 people

die including one British

soldier