FREE ESSAY ON CAUSES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION

CAUSES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION

In the aftermath of the French and Indian War, Britain needed a new imperial design, but
the situation in America was anything but favorable to change. Long accustomed to a large
measure of independence, the colonies were demanding more, not less, freedom,
particularly now that the French menace had been eliminated. To put a new system into
effect, and to tighten control, Parliament had to contend with colonists trained in
self-government and impatient with interference. One of the first things that British
attempted was the organization of the interior. The conquest of Canada and of the Ohio
Valley necessitated policies that would not alienate the French and Indian inhabitants.
But here the Crown came into conflict with the interests of the colonies. Fast increasing
in population, and needing more land for settlement, various colonies claimed the right
to extend their boundaries as far west as the Mississippi River. The British government,
fearing that settlers migrating into the new lands would provoke a series of Indian wars,
believed that the lands should be opened to colonists on a more gradual basis.
Restricting movement was also a way of ensuring royal control over existing settlements
before allowing the formation of new ones. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 reserved all
the western territory between the Alleghenies, Florida, the Mississippi River and Quebec
for use by Native Americans. Thus the Crown attempted to sweep away every western land
claim of the 13 colonies and to stop westward expansion. Though never effectively
enforced, this measure, in the eyes of the colonists, constituted a high-handed disregard
of their most elementary right to occupy and settle western lands. More serious in its
repercussions was the new financial policy of the British government, which needed more
money to support its growing empire. Unless the taxpayer in England was to supply all
money for the colonies' defense, revenues would have to be extracted from the colonists
through a stronger central administration, which would come at the expense of colonial
self-government. The first step in inaugurating the new system was the replacement of the
Molasses Act of 1733, which placed a prohibitive duty, or tax, on the import of rum and
molasses from non-English areas, with the Sugar Act of 1764. This act forbade the
importation of foreign rum; put a modest duty on molasses from all sources and levied
duties on wines, silks, coffee and a number of other luxury items. The hope was that
lowering the duty on molasses would reduce the temptation to smuggle it from the Dutch
and French West Indies for processing in the rum distilleries of New England. To enforce
the Sugar Act, customs officials were ordered to show more energy and effectiveness.
British warships in American waters were instructed to seize smugglers, and writs of
assistance, or warrants, authorized the king's officers to search suspected premises. 
Both the duty imposed by the Sugar Act and the measures to enforce it caused
consternation among New England merchants. They contended that payment of even the small
duty imposed would be ruinous to their businesses. Merchants, legislatures and town
meetings protested the law, and colonial lawyers found in the preamble of the Sugar Act
the first intimation of taxation without representation, the slogan that was to draw many
to the American cause against the mother country. Later in 1764, Parliament enacted a
Currency Act to prevent paper bills of credit hereafter issued in any of His Majesty's
colonies from being made legal tender. Since the colonies were a deficit trade area and
were constantly short of hard currency, this measure added a serious burden to the
colonial economy. Equally objectionable from the colonial viewpoint was the Quartering
Act, passed in 1765, which required colonies to provide royal troops with provisions and
barracks. STAMP ACT The last of the measures inaugurating the new colonial system sparked
the greatest organized resistance. Known as the Stamp Act, it provided that revenue
stamps be affixed to all newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, licenses, leases or other
legal documents, the revenue (collected by American customs agents) to be used for
defending, protecting and securing the colonies. The Stamp Act bore equally on people who
did any kind of business. Thus it aroused the hostility of the most powerful and
articulate groups in the American population: journalists, lawyers, clergymen, merchants
and businessmen, North and South, East and West. Soon leading merchants organized for
resistance and formed non-importation associations. Trade with the mother country fell
off sharply in the summer of 1765, as prominent men organized themselves into the Sons of
Liberty -- secret organizations formed to protest the Stamp Act, often through violent
means. From Massachusetts to South Carolina, the act was nullified, and mobs, forcing
luckless customs agents to resign their offices, destroyed the hated stamps. Spurred by
delegate Patrick Henry, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a set of resolutions in
May denouncing taxation without representation as a threat to colonial liberties. The
House of Burgesses declared that Virginians had the rights of Englishmen, and hence could
be taxed only by their own representatives. On June 8, the Massachusetts Assembly invited
all the colonies to appoint delegates to the so-called Stamp Act Congress in New York,
held in October 1765, to consider appeals for relief from the king and Parliament.
Twenty-seven representatives from nine colonies seized the opportunity to mobilize
colonial opinion against parliamentary interference in American affairs. After much
debate, the congress adopted a set of resolutions asserting that no taxes ever have been
or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures, and
that the Stamp Act had a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the
colonists. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION The issue thus drawn centered on the question
of representation. From the colonies' point of view, it was impossible to consider
themselves represented in Parliament unless they actually elected members to the House of
Commons. But this idea conflicted with the English principle of virtual representation,
according to which each member of Parliament represented the interests of the whole
country, even the empire, despite the fact that his electoral base consisted of only a
tiny minority of property owners from a given district. The rest of the community was
seen to be represented on the ground that all inhabitants shared the same interests as
the property owners who elected members of Parliament. Most British officials held that
Parliament was an imperial body representing and exercising the same authority over the
colonies as over the homeland. The American leaders argued that no imperial Parliament
existed; their only legal relations were with the Crown. It was the king who had agreed
to establish colonies beyond the sea and the king who provided them with governments.
They argued that the king was equally a king of England and a king of the colonies, but
they insisted that the English Parliament had no more right to pass laws for the colonies
than any colonial legislature had the right to pass laws for England. The British
Parliament was unwilling to accept the colonial contentions. British merchants, however,
feeling the effects of the American boycott, threw their weight behind a repeal movement,
and in 1766 Parliament yielded, repealing the Stamp Act and modifying the Sugar Act.
However, to mollify the supporters of central control over the colonies, Parliament
followed these actions with passage of the Declaratory Act. This act asserted the
authority of Parliament to make laws binding the colonies in all cases whatsoever.
TOWNSHEND ACTS The year 1767 brought another series of measures that stirred anew all the
elements of discord. Charles Townshend, British chancellor of the exchequer, was called
upon to draft a new fiscal program. Intent upon reducing British taxes by making more
efficient the collection of duties levied on American trade, he tightened customs
administration, at the same time sponsoring duties on colonial imports of paper, glass,
lead and tea exported from Britain to the colonies. The so-called Townshend Acts were
based on the premise that taxes imposed on goods imported by the colonies were legal
while internal taxes (like the Stamp Act) were not. The Townshend Acts were designed to
raise revenue to be used in part to support colonial governors, judges, customs officers
and the British army in America. In response, Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson, in
Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, argued that Parliament had the right to control
imperial commerce but did not have the right to tax the colonies, whether the duties were
external or internal. 
The agitation following enactment of the Townshend duties was less violent than that
stirred by the Stamp Act, but it was nevertheless strong, particularly in the cities of
the Eastern seaboard. Merchants once again resorted to non-importation agreements, and
people made do with local products. Colonists, for example, dressed in homespun clothing
and found substitutes for tea. They used homemade paper and their houses went unpainted.
In Boston, enforcement of the new regulations provoked violence. When customs officials
sought to collect duties, they were set upon by the populace and roughly handled. For
this infraction, two British regiments were dispatched to protect the customs
commissioners. The presence of British troops in Boston was a standing invitation to
disorder. On March 5, 1770, antagonism between citizens and British soldiers again flared
into violence. What began as a harmless snowballing of British soldiers degenerated into
a mob attack. Someone gave the order to fire. When the smoke had cleared, three
Bostonians lay dead in the snow. Dubbed the Boston Massacre, the incident was
dramatically pictured as proof of British heartlessness and tyranny. Faced with such
opposition, Parliament in 1770 opted for a strategic retreat and repealed all the
Townshend duties except that on tea, which was a luxury item in the colonies, imbibed
only by a very small minority. To most, the action of Parliament signified that the
colonists had won a major concession, and the campaign against England was largely
dropped. A colonial embargo on English tea continued but was not too scrupulously
observed. Prosperity was increasing and most colonial leaders were willing to let the
future take care of itself. SAMUEL ADAMS During a three-year interval of calm, a
relatively small number of radicals strove energetically to keep the controversy alive,
however. They contended that payment of the tax constituted an acceptance of the
principle that Parliament had the right to rule over the colonies. They feared that at
any time in the future, the principle of parliamentary rule might be applied with
devastating effect on all colonial liberties. The radicals' most effective leader was
Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, who toiled tirelessly for a single end: independence. From
the time he graduated from Harvard College in 1740, Adams was a public servant in some
capacity -- inspector of chimneys, tax-collector and moderator of town meetings. A
consistent failure in business, he was shrewd and able in politics, with the New England
town meeting his theater of action. Adams's goals were to free people from their awe of
social and political superiors, make them aware of their own power and importance and
thus arouse them to action. Toward these objectives, he published articles in newspapers
and made speeches in town meetings, instigating resolutions that appealed to the
colonists' democratic impulses. In 1772 he induced the Boston town meeting to select a
Committee of Correspondence to state the rights and grievances of the colonists. The
committee opposed a British decision to pay the salaries of judges from customs revenues;
it feared that the judges would no longer be dependent on the legislature for their
incomes and thus no longer accountable to it -- thereby leading to the emergence of a
despotic form of government. The committee communicated with other towns on this matter
and requested them to draft replies. Committees were set up in virtually all the
colonies, and out of them grew a base of effective revolutionary organizations. Still,
Adams did not have enough fuel to set a fire. BOSTON TEA PARTY In 1773, however, Britain
furnished Adams and his allies with an incendiary issue. The powerful East India Company,
finding itself in critical financial straits, appealed to the British government, which
granted it a monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies. The government also permitted
the East India Company to supply retailers directly, bypassing colonial wholesalers who
had previously sold it. After 1770, such a flourishing illegal trade existed that most of
the tea consumed in America was of foreign origin and imported, illegally, duty- free. By
selling its tea through its own agents at a price well under the customary one, the East
India Company made smuggling unprofitable and threatened to eliminate the independent
colonial merchants at the same time. Aroused not only by the loss of the tea trade but
also by the monopolistic practice involved, colonial traders joined the radicals
agitating for independence. In ports up and down the Atlantic coast, agents of the East
India Company were forced to resign, and new shipments of tea were either returned to
England or warehoused. In Boston, however, the agents defied the colonists and, with the
support of the royal governor, made preparations to land incoming cargoes regardless of
opposition. On the night of December 16, 1773, a band of men disguised as Mohawk Indians
and led by Samuel Adams boarded three British ships lying at anchor and dumped their tea
cargo into Boston harbor. They took this step because they feared that if the tea were
landed, colonists would actually comply with the tax and purchase the tea. Adams and his
band of radicals doubted their countrymen's commitment to principle. A crisis now
confronted Britain. The East India Company had carried out a parliamentary statute, and
if the destruction of the tea went unpunished, Parliament would admit to the world that
it had no control over the colonies. Official opinion in Britain almost unanimously
condemned the Boston Tea Party as an act of vandalism and advocated legal measures to
bring the insurgent colonists into line. THE COERCIVE ACTS Parliament responded with new
laws that the colonists called the Coercive or Intolerable Acts. The first, the Boston
Port Bill, closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for -- an action that
threatened the very life of the city, for to prevent Boston from having access to the sea
meant economic disaster. Other enactments restricted local authority and banned most town
meetings held without the governor's consent. A Quartering Act required local authorities
to find suitable quarters for British troops, in private homes if necessary. Instead of
subduing and isolating Massachusetts as Parliament intended, these acts rallied its
sister colonies to its aid. The Quebec Act, passed at nearly the same time, extended the
boundaries of the province of Quebec and guaranteed the right of the French inhabitants
to enjoy religious freedom and their own legal customs. The colonists opposed this act
because, by disregarding old charter claims to western lands, it threatened to hem them
in to the North and Northwest by a Roman Catholic-dominated province. Though the Quebec
Act had not been passed as a punitive measure, it was classed by the Americans with the
Coercive Acts, and all became known as the Five Intolerable Acts. At the suggestion of
the Virginia House of Burgesses, colonial representatives met in Philadelphia on
September 5, 1774, to consult upon the present unhappy state of the Colonies. Delegates
to this meeting, known as the First Continental Congress, were chosen by provincial
congresses or popular conventions. Every colony except Georgia sent at least one
delegate, and the total number of 55 was large enough for diversity of opinion, but small
enough for genuine debate and effective action. The division of opinion in the colonies
posed a genuine dilemma for the delegates. They would have to give an appearance of firm
unanimity to induce the British government to make concessions and, at the same time,
they would have to avoid any show of radicalism or spirit of independence that would
alarm more moderate Americans. A cautious keynote speech, followed by a resolve that no
obedience was due the Coercive Acts, ended with adoption of a set of resolutions, among
them, the right of the colonists to life, liberty and property, and the right of
provincial legislatures to set all cases of taxation and internal polity. The most
important action taken by the Congress, however, was the formation of a Continental
Association, which provided for the renewal of the trade boycott and for a system of
committees to inspect customs entries, publish the names of merchants who violated the
agreements, confiscate their imports, and encourage frugality, economy and industry. The
Association immediately assumed the leadership in the colonies, spurring new local
organizations to end what remained of royal authority. Led by the pro-independence
leaders, they drew their support not only from the less well-to-do, but from many members
of the professional class, especially lawyers, most of the planters of the Southern
colonies and a number of merchants. They intimidated the hesitant into joining the
popular movement and punished the hostile. They began the collection of military supplies
and the mobilization of troops. And they fanned public opinion into revolutionary ardor.
Many Americans, opposed to British encroachment on American rights, nonetheless favored
discussion and compromise as the proper solution. This group included Crown-appointed
officers, many Quakers and members of other religious sects opposed to the use of
violence, many merchants -- especially from the middle colonies -- and some discontented
farmers and frontiersmen from Southern colonies. The king might well have effected an
alliance with these large numbers of moderates and, by timely concessions, so
strengthened their position that the revolutionaries would have found it difficult to
proceed with hostilities. But George III had no intention of making concessions. In
September 1774, scorning a petition by Philadelphia Quakers, he wrote, The die is now
cast, the Colonies must either submit or triumph. This action isolated the Loyalists who
were appalled and frightened by the course of events following the Coercive Acts. 
There were many causes of the American Revolution. The American Revolutionary War was a
complex event that belies a simplistic nationalist view. It contained many different
wars. It was, first, a war for national independence. Although this type of war is taken
for granted by Americans today, it must be remembered that the Revolutionary War was the
first in which colonies successfully rebelled against an imperial power. As a result, the
American Revolution became an inspiration to other colonial peoples in the nineteenth
century.
The new nation which declared itself independent in 1776 was founded upon the natural
rights philosophy of John Locke, the English political theorist and philosopher.
1763 - The Proclamation of 1763, signed by King George III of England, prohibits any
English settlement west of the Appalachian mountains and requires those already settled
in those regions to return east in an attempt to ease tensions with Native Americans. 
1764 - The Sugar Act is passed by the English Parliament to offset the war debt brought
on by the French and Indian War and to help pay for the expenses of running the colonies
and newly acquired territories. This act increases the duties on imported sugar and other
items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo (dye). It doubles the duties on foreign
goods reshipped from England to the colonies and also forbids the import of foreign rum
and French wines.
1764 - The English Parliament passes a measure to reorganize the American customs system
to better enforce British trade laws, which have often been ignored in the past. A court
is established in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that will have jurisdiction over all of the
American colonies in trade matters.
1764 - The Currency Act prohibits the colonists from issuing any legal tender paper
money. This act threatens to destabilize the entire colonial economy of both the
industrial North and agricultural South, thus uniting the colonists against it.
1764 - In May, at a town meeting in Boston, James Otis raises the issue of taxation
without representation and urges a united response to the recent acts imposed by England.
In July, Otis publishes The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. In
August, Boston merchants begin a boycott of British luxury goods.
1765 - In March, the Stamp Act is passed by the English Parliament imposing the first
direct tax on the American colonies, to offset the high costs of the British military
organization in America. Thus for the first time in the 150 year old history of the
British colonies in America, the Americans will pay tax not to their own local
legislatures in America, but directly to England. 
Under the Stamp Act, all printed materials are taxed, including; newspapers, pamphlets,
bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards. The American
colonists quickly unite in opposition, led by the most influential segments of colonial
society - lawyers, publishers, land owners, ship builders and merchants - who are most
affected by the Act, which is scheduled to go into effect on November 1.
1765 - Also in March, the Quartering Act requires colonists to house British troops and
supply them with food. 
1765 - In May, in Virginia, Patrick Henry presents seven Virginia Resolutions to the
House of Burgesses claiming that only the Virginia assembly can legally tax Virginia
residents, saying, If this be treason, make the most of it. Also in May, the first
medical school in America is founded, in Philadelphia.
1765 - In July, the Sons of Liberty, an underground organization opposed to the Stamp
Act, is formed in a number of colonial towns. Its members use violence and intimidation
to eventually force all of the British stamp agents to resign and also stop many American
merchants from ordering British trade goods. 
1765 - August 26, a mob in Boston attacks the home of Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice of
Massachusetts, as Hutchinson and his family narrowly escape.
1765 - In October, the Stamp Act Congress convenes in New York City, with representatives
from nine of the colonies. The Congress prepares a resolution to be sent to King George
III and the English Parliament. The petition requests the repeal of the Stamp Act and the
Acts of 1764. The petition asserts that only colonial legislatures can tax colonial
residents and that taxation without representation violates the colonists' basic civil
rights.
1765 - On November 1, most daily business and legal transactions in the colonies cease as
the Stamp Act goes into effect with nearly all of the colonists refusing to use the
stamps. In New York City, violence breaks out as a mob burns the royal governor in
effigy, harasses British troops, then loots houses. 
1765 - In December, British General Thomas Gage, commander of all English military forces
in America, asks the New York assembly to make colonists comply with the Quartering Act
and house and supply his troops. Also in December, the American boycott of English
imports spreads, as over 200 Boston merchants join the movement.
1766 - In January, the New York assembly refuses to completely comply with Gen. Gage's
request to enforce the Quartering Act.
1766 - In March, King George III signs a bill repealing the Stamp Act after much debate
in the English Parliament, which included an appearance by Ben Franklin arguing for
repeal and warning of a possible revolution in the American colonies if the Stamp Act was
enforced by the British military. 
1766 - On the same day it repealed the Stamp Act, the English Parliament passes the
Declaratory Act stating that the British government has total power to legislate any laws
governing the American colonies in all cases whatsoever.
1766 - In April, news of the repeal of the Stamp Act results in celebrations in the
colonies and a relaxation of the boycott of imported English trade goods. 
1766 - In August, violence breaks out in New York between British soldiers and armed
colonists, including Sons of Liberty members. The violence erupts as a result of the
continuing refusal of New York colonists to comply with the Quartering Act. In December,
the New York legislature is suspended by the English Crown after once again voting to
refuse to comply with the Act.
1767 - In June, The English Parliament passes the Townshend Revenue Acts, imposing a new
series of taxes on the colonists to offset the costs of administering and protecting the
American colonies. Items taxed include imports such as paper, tea, glass, lead and
paints. The Act also establishes a colonial board of customs commissioners in Boston. In
October, Bostonians decide to reinstate a boycott of English luxury items.
1768 - In February, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts writes a Circular Letter opposing
taxation without representation and calling for the colonists to unite in their actions
against the British government. The letter is sent to assemblies throughout the colonies
and also instructs them on the methods the Massachusetts general court is using to oppose
the Townshend Acts.
1768 - In April, England's Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Hillsborough, orders
colonial governors to stop their own assemblies from endorsing Adams' circular letter.
Hillsborough also orders the governor of Massachusetts to dissolve the general court if
the Massachusetts assembly does not revoke the letter. By month's end, the assemblies of
New Hampshire, Connecticut and New Jersey have endorsed the letter.
1768 - In May, a British warship armed with 50 cannons sails into Boston harbor after a
call for help from custom commissioners who are constantly being harassed by Boston
agitators. In June, a customs official is locked up in the cabin of the Liberty, a sloop
owned by John Hancock. Imported wine is then unloaded illegally into Boston without
payment of duties. Following this incident, customs officials seize Hancock's sloop.
After threats of violence from Bostonians, the customs officials escape to an island off
Boston, then request the intervention of British troops.
1768 - In July, the governor of Massachusetts dissolves the general court after the
legislature defies his order to revoke Adams' circular letter. In August, in Boston and
New York, merchants agree to boycott most British goods until the Townshend Acts are
repealed. In September, at a town meeting in Boston, residents are urged to arm
themselves. Later in September, English warships sail into Boston Harbor, then two
regiments of English infantry land in Boston and set up permanent residence to keep
order.
1769 - In March, merchants in Philadelphia join the boycott of British trade goods. In
May, a set of resolutions written by George Mason is presented by George Washington to
the Virginia House of Burgesses. The Virginia Resolves oppose taxation without
representation, the British opposition to the circular letters, and British plans to
possibly send American agitators to England for trial. Ten days later, the Royal governor
of Virginia dissolves the House of Burgesses. However, its members meet the next day in a
Williamsburg tavern and agree to a boycott of British trade goods, luxury items and
slaves.
1769 - In July, in the territory of California, San Diego is founded by Franciscan Friar
Juniper Serra. In October, the boycott of English goods spreads to New Jersey, Rhode
Island, and then North Carolina.
1770 - The population of the American colonies reaches 2,210,000 persons. 
1770 - Violence erupts in January between members of the Sons of Liberty in New York and
40 British soldiers over the posting of broadsheets by the British. Several men are
seriously wounded. 
March 5, 1770 - The Boston Massacre occurs as a mob harasses British soldiers who then
fire their muskets pointblank into the crowd, killing three instantly, mortally wounding
two others and injuring six. After the incident, the new Royal Governor of Massachusetts,
Thomas Hutchinson, at the insistence of Sam Adams, withdraws British troops out of Boston
to nearby harbor islands. The captain of the British soldiers, Thomas Preston, is then
arrested along with eight of his men and charged with murder.
1770 - In April, the Townshend Acts are repealed by the British. All duties on imports
into the colonies are eliminated except for tea. Also, the Quartering Act is not
renewed.
1770 - In October, trial begins for the British soldiers arrested after the Boston
Massacre. Colonial lawyers John Adams and Josiah Quincy successfully defend Captain
Preston and six of his men, who are acquitted. Two other soldiers are found guilty of
manslaughter, branded, then released.
1772 - In June, a British customs schooner, the Gaspee, runs aground off Rhode Island in
Narragansett Bay. Colonists from Providence row out to the schooner and attack it, set
the British crew ashore, then burn the ship. In September, a 500 pound reward is offered
by the English Crown for the capture of those colonists, who would then be sent to
England for trial. The announcement that they would be sent to England further upsets
many American colonists.
1772 - In November, a Boston town meeting assembles, called by Sam Adams. During the
meeting, a 21 member committee of correspondence is appointed to communicate with other
towns and colonies. A few weeks later, the town meeting endorses three radical
proclamations asserting the rights of the colonies to self-rule.
1773 - In March, the Virginia House of Burgesses appoints an eleven member committee of
correspondence to communicate with the other colonies regarding common complaints against
the British. Members of that committee include, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and
Richard Henry Lee. Virginia is followed a few months later by New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Connecticut and South Carolina.
1773 - May 10, the Tea Act takes effect. It maintains a threepenny per pound import tax
on tea arriving in the colonies, which had already been in effect for six years. It also
gives the near bankrupt British East India Company a virtual tea monopoly by allowing it
to sell directly to colonial agents, bypassing any middlemen, thus underselling American
merchants. The East India Company had successfully lobbied Parliament for such a measure.
In September, Parliament authorizes the company to ship half a million pounds of tea to a
group of chosen tea agents.
1773 - In October, colonists hold a mass meeting in Philadelphia in opposition to the tea
tax and the monopoly of the East India Company. A committee then forces British tea
agents to resign their positions. In November, a town meeting is held in Boston endorsing
the actions taken by Philadelphia colonists. Bostonians then try, but fail, to get their
British tea agents to resign. A few weeks later, three ships bearing tea sail into Boston
harbor.
1773 - November 29/30, two mass meetings occur in Boston over what to do about the tea
aboard the three ships now docked in Boston harbor. Colonists decide to send the tea on
the ship, Dartmouth, back to England without paying any import duties. The Royal Governor
of Massachusetts, Hutchinson, is opposed to this and orders harbor officials not to let
the ship sail out of the harbor unless the tea taxes have been paid.
December 16, 1773 - About 8000 Bostonians gather to hear Sam Adams tell them Royal
Governor Hutchinson has repeated his command not to allow the ships out of the harbor
until the tea taxes are paid. That night, the Boston Tea Party occurs as colonial
activists disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians then board the ships and dump all 342
containers of tea into the harbor.
1774 - In March, an angry English Parliament passes the first of a series of Coercive
Acts (called Intolerable Acts by Americans) in response to the rebellion in
Massachusetts. The Boston Port Bill effectively shuts down all commercial shipping in
Boston harbor until Massachusetts pays the taxes owed on the tea dumped in the harbor and
also reimburses the East India Company for the loss of the tea.
1774 - May 12, Bostonians at a town meeting call for a boycott of British imports in
response to the Boston Port Bill. May 13, General Thomas Gage, commander of all British
military forces in the colonies, arrives in Boston and replaces Hutchinson as Royal
governor, putting Massachusetts under military rule. He is followed by the arrival of
four regiments of British troops. 
1774 - May 17-23, colonists in Providence, New York and Philadelphia begin calling for an
intercolonial congress to overcome the Coercive Acts and discuss a common course of
action against the British. 
1774 - May 20, The English Parliament enacts the next series of Coercive Acts, which
include the Massachusetts Regulating Act and the Government Act virtually ending any
self-rule by the colonists there. Instead, the English Crown and the Royal governor
assume political power formerly exercised by colonists. Also enacted; the Administration
of Justice Act which protects royal officials in Massachusetts from being sued in
colonial courts, and the Quebec Act establishing a centralized government in Canada
controlled by the Crown and English Parliament. The Quebec Act greatly upsets American
colonists by extending the southern boundary of Canada into territories claimed by
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia.
1774 - In June, a new version of the 1765 Quartering Act is enacted by the English
Parliament requiring all of the American colonies to provide housing for British troops
in occupied houses and taverns and in unoccupied buildings. In September, Massachusetts
Governor Gage seizes that colony's arsenal of weapons at Charlestown.
1774 - September 5 to October 26, the First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia
with 56 delegates, representing every colony, except Georgia. Attendants include Patrick
Henry, George Washington, Sam Adams and John Hancock.
On September 17, the Congress declares its opposition to the Coercive Acts, saying they
are not to be obeyed, and also promotes the formation of local militia units. On October
14, a Declaration and Resolves is adopted that opposes the Coercive Acts, the Quebec Act,
and other measure taken by the British that undermine self-rule. The rights of the
colonists are asserted, including the rights to life, liberty and property. On October
20, the Congress adopts the Continental Association in which delegates agree to a boycott
of English imports, effect an embargo of exports to Britain, and discontinue the slave
trade.
1775 - February 1, in Cambridge, Mass., a provincial congress is held during which John
Hancock and Joseph Warren begin defensive preparations for a state of war. February 9,
the English Parliament declares Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. March 23, in
Virginia, Patrick Henry delivers a speech against British rule, stating, Give me liberty
or give me death! March 30, the New England Restraining Act is endorsed by King George
III, requiring New England colonies to trade exclusively with England and also bans
fishing in the North Atlantic. 
1775 - In April, Massachusetts Governor Gage is ordered to enforce the Coercive Acts and
suppress open rebellion among the colonists by all necessary force.
French and Indian War (1754) The French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years
War) saw the British pitted against the French, the Austrians, and the Spanish. This war
raged across the globe. In February 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed. In this treaty,
title to all French territory; east of the Mississippi, was ceded to the British.
The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. The French
lost all of its territory in America. England took all of the French territory east of
the Mississippi. England then imposed new taxes on the colonies, because of it.
British Impose New Taxes(1764) In 1764 the British for the first time imposed a series of
taxes designed specifically to raise revenue from the colonies. The tax whose official
name was the American Revenue Act, became popularly known as the Sugar Act. On of its
major components was the raising of tariff on sugar. The act was combined with a greater
attempt to enforce the existing tariffs. 
Stamp Tax Passed(1765) The British, led by Prime Minister George Greenville, felt that
the colonists should share some of the continued burden of sustaining British troops in
the colonies. Greenville's first action was to order the navy to enforce the Navigation
Acts. He then secured passage from the British parliament of the Sugar Act, which raised
the duty on sugar and other items imported into the colonies. One result of the protests
was the meeting of the Stamp Act Congress in New York, to which many of the colonies sent
representatives. Many colonies agreed not to import any British goods until the Stamp Tax
was repealed.
Sons of Liberty Formed(1766) One of the American reactions to the stamp act was the
creation of secret organizations throughout the colonies, known as the Sons of Liberty.
Led by prominent citizens, they resorted to coerciion to force stamp agents to resign
their posts. 
Townshend Acts Imposed(1767) In the summer of 1766, King George III of England replaced
Prime Minister Rockingham with William Pitt. Pitt was popular in the colonies. He opposed
the Stamp Act and believed that colonists were entitled to all the rights of English
citizens.
Pitt suddenly became sick. Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, took over the
effective reins of the government. Unlike his predecessor, Townshend was not concerned
with the subtleties of the rights of American colonists. Townshend wanted to strengthen
the power of the British parliament which would simultaneously strengthen the power of
royal officials. He convinced the Parliament to pass a series of laws imposing new taxes
on the colonists. These laws included special taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass and tea
imported by colonists. In addition, the New York legislature was suspended until it
agreed to quarter British soldiers.
Colonist Respond with Boycott(1767) The most tangible colonial protes to the Townshend
Act was the revival of an agreement not to import British goods, especially luxury
products. The Non-importation agreement slowly grew to include merchants in all of the
colonies, with the exception of New Hampshire. Within a year importation from Britain
dropped almost in half. 
British Troops Land in Boston(1768) In response to colonial protest and increasing
attacks on colonial officials by the Sons of Liberty, Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of
State for the Colonies, dispatched tow regiments-(4,000 troops), to restore order in
Boston. The daily contact between British soldiers and colonists served to worsen
relations. 
Boston Massacre(1770) An armed clash between the British and the colonists was almost
inevitable from the moment British troops were introduced in Boston. Brawls were constant
between the British and the colonists, who were constantly insulting the troops.
On March 5, 1770, a crowd of sixty towns people surrounded British sentries guarding the
customs house. They began pelting snowballs at the guards. Suddenly, a shot rang out,
followed by several others. Ultimately, 11 colonists were hit. Five were dead, including
Crispus Attucks, a former slave. 
Repeal Townshend Acts(1770) The British parliament repeased the Townshend duties on all
but tea. Falling colonial imports and raising opposition convinced the British government
that its policies were not working. The British government, led by Prime Minister Lord
North, maintained the taxes on tea, in order to underscore the supremacy of parliament. 
Cutter Gaspee Burned(1772) On the afternoon of June 9th, 1772 the British revenue
schooner the Gaspee ran aground, south of Providence, Rhode Island. That night eight
boatloads of men led by merchant John Brown stormed the ship. After overwhelming the crew
they bunred the ship. The British government announced that when the perpetrators were
caught they would be tried in England and not in the colonies. None of the perpetrators
were discovered by the British.
Boston Tea Party(1773) Protests in the colonies against the Stamp Acts had died down when
Parliament passed the Tea Act. The new act granted a monopoly on tea trade in the
Americas to the East India Tea Company.
The Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, insisted that tea be unloaded in
Boston, despite a boycott organized by the Sons of Liberty.
On the evening of December 16th, thousands of Bostonians and farmers from the surrounding
countryside packed into the Old South Meeting house to hear Samuel Adams. Adams denounced
the Governor for denying clearance for vessels wishing to leave with tea still on board.
After his speech the crowd headed for the waterfront. From the crowd, 50 individuals
emerged dressed as Indians. They boarded three vessels docked in the harbor and threw
90,000 pounds of tea overboard. 
Coercive Acts Imposed(1774) The British were shocked by the destruction of the tea in
Boston Harbor and other colonial protests.
The British parliament gave its speedy assent to a series of acts that became known as
the Coercive Acts; or in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts. These acts included the
closing of the port of Boston, until such time as the East India tea company received
compensation for the tea dumped into the harbor. The Royal governor took control over the
Massachusetts government and would appoint all officials. Sheriffs would become royal
appointees, as would juries. In addition, the British took the right to quarter soldiers
anywhere in the colonies.
First Continental Congress Meets(1774) The first Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia, from September 5th to October 26th 1774. The Congress sat in Carpenters
Hall. They affirmed the right of the colonies to life, liberty and property. Fifty-six
delegates attended, half of whom were lawyers.