American Revolution Short term causes

A. Boston Massacre – 1770 5 colonists shot & killed as result of harassing British sentries Sam Adams & Paul Revere propagandize event into a “massacre”

Boston Tea Party (1773) Sam Adams leads a group of 50 to docks & tosses tea into Boston Harbor Parliament passes Tea Act to give British a monopoly on American tea market

The Intolerable (Coercive) Acts-1774 closed Boston harbor repealed Mass.’s Charter (no self-govt.) colonists must quarter troops British must be tried in Admiralty Courts, not colonial courts

First Continental Congress colonial reps. meet in Philadelphia to discuss Intolerable Acts called for 1.no payment of taxes 2.boycott British goods Samuel Adams above, was the 1st to mention the idea of a continental congress.

Paul Revere’s Ride 1. “ The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”-April 19, 1775, 1st shots of American Revolution Patriots stockpiled weapons in Lexington & Concord, MA British land in Boston & march on Concord Revere’s Midnight Ride British fire on Minutemen, confiscate weapons, & torch grain British ambushed all the way back to Boston 49 Americans killed/wounded 270 British killed/wounded

The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 1. Written by T. Jefferson, it relied heavily on Locke’s political ideas: 2. lists abuses of British govt.

Declaration of Independence 3. Preamble natural (“inalienable”)rights government from “consent of the governed”-social contract 4. Body (This is why you are not fulfilling wishes of the people and protecting our rights) lists abuses of British govt.

Declaration of Ind. Continued 5. Conclusion (and because of social contract, king not protecting rights, we have right to revolution, or right to form new government to protect our natural rights) a.) states that the colonies (now to be referred to as the United States of America) are “absolved from all allegiance to the British crown”