1. Causes of the American Revolution

2. Mercantilism----a theory that a country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys. Colonial Americans had to sell their good to Great Britain.

3. Salutary Neglect: England ignored the Colonists until after the French and Indian War. England was broke after the F&I War so they started taxing the Colonists to get $$$$. In the meantime, Colonists were making their own successful society.

4. French and Indian War
French and Native Americans fight against British because of trade (mercantilism)
British win all French land in North America, except New Orleans
British is left with a large war debt for colonists to pay

6. Stamp Act
Passed in 1765
Required colonists to purchase special stamps to prove that they paid the tax on paper goods, such as newspapers and legal documents
Way for British to make $$$ to pay off debts from the French and Indian War
Colonists reacted by harassing stamp distributors, boycotting British goods, and preparing a Declaration or Rights and Grievances
Slogan “No Taxation without Representation”

7. Navigation Acts
Series of four acts that required all colonial goods to be transported on British ships only
Benefited British because of mercantilism

9. Quartering Act Passed in 1765
Required colonists to house, feed, and provide clothing for British soldiers at the expense of the colonists

10. Declaratory Act Passed in 1766
Stated that British parliament had sole authority to govern, tax, and make decisions for the colonies in “all cases”
Colonists reacted by boycotting British goods

11. Townshend Acts Passed in 1767
Taxed certain colonial imports such as glass, tea, paper, lead, and other goods that the colonists needed because they did not produce them
Stationed troops at major colonial ports to protect customs officers
Colonists reacted by protesting “No Taxation without Representation” and organized a new boycott of imported goods

12. Boston Massacre
March 5, 1770
the killing of five unarmed colonists by British soldiers

13. Tea Act
Passed in 1773
gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea business
Shut out colonial tea merchants by selling tea directly to shopkeepers at low prices
Colonists blocked all east India Company ships from colonial ports, except those that arrived at the Port of Boston
In 1773, a group of colonists dressed as Native Americans and dumped 342 chests (18,000 pounds) of British tea into the Boston Harbor
Boston Tea Party

14. Boston Tea Party December 16, 1773
a large band of Patriots, the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped 18,000 pounds of tea into the harbor in protest of the Tea Act

15. Intolerable Acts Also called the Coercive Acts
Passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party
Caused control over Massachusetts to be tightened by closing Boston Harbor
Restricted the colonists’ rights, including right to trial by jury and allowed British soldiers to search, and even move into, colonists’ homes
Colonists reacted by forming the First Continental Congress in September of 1774 and drawing up a Declaration of Colonial Rights

16. First Continental Congress
of 13 colonies attended (no Georgia)
did not advocate independence;
sought to right the wrongs inflicted on the colonies and hoped that a unified voice would gain them a hearing in London
Sent the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, a list of wrongs committed against the colonists by King George

17. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
January 1776
Pamphlet that encouraged undecided colonists to favor independence from Great Britain
Appealed to a colonist’s pride
and intelligence

18. Writs of Assistance
British soldiers could enter home or look through a ship for any reason if they were suspicious something illegal was occurring
Will lead to right of “no unreasonable search and seizures” 18

19. Proclamation of 1763
Passed to prohibit colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains
British stated it was to protect colonists from the savage Native Americans, but the purpose was reaaly to keep more control of the colonists by keeping them closer together

20. Proclamation of 1763

21. Lexington and Concord April 19, 1775 Shot Heard ‘Round the World
First shots of the American Revolution