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The British colonists began to venture from Virginia to settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains in the Ohio River Valley-land claimed by the France. During this time France was increasing its presence in the Ohio River area to build up its fur trade. This war was between the French and most Native tribes against the British and Iroquois. This war was a turning point in relations between Great Britain and the thirteen colonies- from salutary neglect to postwar greater control over the colonies. -
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In response to Pontiac's Rebellion, Great Britain (G.B.) issued the Proclamation of 1763, which drew a line down the Appalachian mountains. G.B ordered that the colonists couldn't settle past the line. The colonists were upset, because they felt that they had sacrificed for the war and were eager to settle in new lands. G.B. didn't want to provoke new warfare with the natives in that regions and incur the costs of more campaigns in the west. Firsts of major disputes between colonists and G.B. -
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In communities throughout the colonies, opponents of British policies organized committees of correspondence starting in 1764. These committees spread information and coordinated resistance actions. By the 1770s, committees had become vital sub-governments in the different colonies. Assuming powers and challenging the legitimacy of the legislative assemblies and royal governors.
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The first significant post-war tax was enacted with the Sugar Act. The act actually lowered the existing tax on molasses imported into North America from French colonies in the West Indies. However, with lowering the tax, the act cracked down on widespread smuggling. The act strengthened the admiralty courts system, which shifted prosecutions of smuggling cases from local jury trials to British maritime courts. The British were in hopes of generating more income from these measures. -
The Stamp Act provoked the most intense colonial opposition of all the measures enacted by the British following the French and Indian War. It represented a shift from previous British colonial policy. Prior tax acts were originally aimed at regulating trade, but this act was now designed to solely raise revenue (due to war debt). It was a direct tax on colonists rather than indirect trade duty. The act imposed a tax on all sorts of printed matter in the colonies. -
Addressed housing of British soldiers who were stationed in the colonies following the FI War. The act stipulated that G.B would house soldiers in barracks, but if the number of soldiers exceeded available facilities, local inns, pubs, and even private residences could be used by British authorities to house them. Colonial assemblies were expected to supply the costs of housing and feeding of soldiers. Often soldiers were given part-time wages to help their wages by working in the community. -
Responding to the Stamp Act, delegates from nine colonies met in N.Y. and drew up a document listing grievances, which went beyond the Stamp Act itself. The Declarations of the Stamp Act Congress asserted that only representatives elected by colonists could enact taxes on colonies, developing the slogan "No taxation without representation." British responded with "virtual representation," the theory that members of Parliament represent the entire British Empire though they didn't vote for them. -
These acts passed after the Stamp Act crisis, and were additional taxes on colonies. British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, made sure these new taxes-on paint, lead, tea, and other goods-were "external" taxes, on imports, not "internal" sales taxes on items. Opposition to these import duties were slow to develop. By 1768 colonial leaders boycotted British goods. This movement gained strength throughout the colonies. Simple goods were substituted for extravagant British goods. -
During the winter of 1770 a deadly incident between British soldiers and a group of Bostonians disseminated throughout the colonies. The Boston Massacre, occurred in March as a disagreement between an on-duty British sentry and a young wigmaker's apprentice. Angry colonists threw stones at the British sentries ordered out to restore calm. The troops fired on the colonists, resulting in 5 deaths. The incident is used as colonial propaganda to show the British troop's brutality. -
The British East India Company was in crisis; its stock value virtually collapsed. To help the B.E.I.C. the British passed the Tea Act, which greatly reduced taxes on tea sold in the colonies by the them. This act lowered tea prices in Boston, but it angered many colonists who accused the British of doing favors for a large company. Colonists responded by dumping cases of tea into the Boston harbor. The tea dumping was not only a symbolic act, but it wasted tons of tea worth lots of money. -
The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston to trade until further notice. The Port was closed to commerce until the destroyed tea from the Boston Tea Party was paid for and order was restored. -
The British passed a series of acts in 1774, based off of the Boston Tea Party, called the Coercive, or the Intolerable Acts. The British authorities hoped that these acts would make an example of Massachusetts and isolate it from the other British colonies. However, the opposite occurred. Colonists throughout America resented the British for these acts.
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The Massachusetts Government Act brought the governance of Massachusetts under direct British control. The act limited the powers of town meetings and provided the royal governor with the power to directly appoint officials who had previously been elected. -
Allowed for the British authority to move trials from Massachusetts to Great Britain. British policy after the French and Indian War consistently sought tot move trials away from local communities. This move struck colonists as an abridgment of a basic right of Englishmen-the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers. -
The Quartering Act expanded the scope of the 1765 Quartering Act and required Boston residents to house British troops upon their command. -
Met in Philadelphia, with representatives from each of the thirteen colonies, except Georgia. The congress passed several resolutions including nonimportation, non exportation, and non-consumption agreements in an attempt to cut off all trade with the British. Committees of Safety were created to enforce these agreements and recommend that the colonies to make military preparations in defense of possible invasion by the British. The Congress also agreed to meet again in the next spring. -
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In April of 1775, fighting began between colonists and British troops in Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. Americans often call the first shot of this clash "the shot heard round the world." the event symbolized a marked shift in the colonial situation from resistance to rebellion. -
Delegates to the Second Constitutional Congress formally ratified the Declaration of Independence. The first draft of the document was written by Thomas Jefferson in consolation with fellow members of a five-person committee appointed by Congress. The draft underwent edits by the entire Second Continental Congress. The declaration's body is a list of grievances against the king of G.B, but the preamble contains key elements of John Locke's natural rights theory, and Rousseau's Social Contract.