The American Revolution,
1775-1789
Chapter 5: Section 3
LONG TERM CAUSES
Long-Term Causes
A. ECONOMIC
1.
French and Indian War, 1756-1763
• Britain owed huge war debt & had to find
way to pay it off (tax Americans)
• Treaty of 1763 forced France to leave
North America Empire (erased French
threat to colonists)
2. Restraints on Trade
•
Mercantilism no longer working for the Americans
1) want free trade
2) manufacture own goods
•
British Navigation Acts prevented them from
doing so
Long-Term Causes (cont.)
B. POLITICAL
1. Policy of Salutary Neglect
•
•
British policy of leaving the 13 colonies pretty
much alone for 150 years
Colonists dev. own system of gov’t almost
independent of Britain
2. Unfair system of taxation
• Only their own colonial assemblies (elected
by the colonists) had right to tax them
• Parliament could not tax them because
Americans did NOT elect them
• “No taxation without representation!”
Long-Term Causes (cont.)
C. SOCIAL
“Americanization”
• Colonies distance from Britain so
far (3,000 mi.) and so much time
had elapsed (150 yrs) that
Americans had developed their
own unique culture (apart from
Britain)
Long-Term Causes (cont.)
D. INTELLECTUAL
The Ideas of Enlightenment
Core beliefs of the Enlightenment
encouraged Americans to revolt




Locke’s “natural rights” (govt. must
protect)
Smith’s idea of economic freedom (laissezfaire)
Voltaire’s push for free speech/religion
Montesquieu’s separation of powers
IMMEDIATE CAUSES
1763 - 1776
Policy of Taxation
1. Britain’s New Policies
• 1763: The Proclamation Act
• 1764: Sugar Act- tax on sugar & molasses
(rum); hurt New England colonies most
• 1765: Stamp Act- tax on all printed
materials (newspapers, deeds, even playing
cards)
•
•
•
direct tax
Taxes for sole act of raising revenue illegal (only to
regulate trade)
Stamp Act Congress -NYC
1. Boycott of British goods
Taxation and “Massacre”
• 1767: Townshend Acts – Parliament places
tax on certain imports (lead, glass, tea, paint,
paper)
• Colonists continue to resist and boycott British goods
(make their own)
2. Boston Massacre (March 1770)
• British troops stationed in Boston to oversee
unruly colonists
• Group of American dockworkers begin hassling
& throwing snowballs at British soldiers
• British fire into group and kill 5 colonists
The Boston Massacre Through
Patriot Eyes
Two Boston
patriots -Paul
Revere and
Samuel
Adams
exaggerate the
event to raise
the anger of
the other
colonists
A TEA PARTY in BOSTON
3. The Boston Tea Party (1773)
• British cut price of tea in attempt to save
struggling British East India Tea Co.
• Americans believe that this will drive
American tea merchants out of business
• Americans refuse to unload the tea
• December, 1773: group of Boston
patriots, disguised as Indians, board
British ships in Boston Harbor & dump
300 tons of tea
Britain Responds
•
•
King George III and Parliament
demand that damages be paid
but Boston refuses
Parliament passes the
Intolerable Acts (1774)
1. Closes Boston Harbor
2. Repeals Massachusetts’ Charter
(self-govt)
3. Quartering Act requires troops to
be housed by colonists
4. All British soldiers to be tried in
Admiralty Courts (British military
courts)
TO FIGHT, OR NOT…?
4. The First Continental Congress- 1774
•
Colonists meet to discuss response to Intolerable Acts
1.
2.
3.
Boycott British goods
Begin drawing up state constitutions
Start gathering weapons & ammunition
5. Lexington & Concord (Mass): April 19, 1775 –
“The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
•
•
•
•
•
British troops march on minutemen to capture colony’s
stored weapons
Revere’s “Midnight Ride” to alarm colonists
Gunfire breaks out and 49 colonists killed/wounded
Americans ambush British all the way back to Boston
(270 killed/wounded)
Blood had been spilled
The Second Continental Congress,
1775
The Second Continental Congress
•
•
Meets to discuss events in Boston
Prepares for war
1. Names George Washington as Commander of
American “Continental Army”
2. States begin drawing up new constitutions and
raising militias
3. Thomas Jefferson called on to explain to rest of the
world why the Americans were justified in breaking
away from England
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
Preamble:
•
Influence of Locke’s ideas
1. Natural (inalienable) rights: life, liberty, pursuit of
happiness (property)
2. Power to govern from “consent of the governed”
Body:
•
Lists abuses of the British government towards
the colonies
Conclusion:
•
Declares the colonies are now to be considered
“independent states” and will be joined as the
United States of America
Jefferson’s Declaration
• Ratified by the Second Continental
Congress
July 4, 1776
1764
Sugar Act
1765
Stamp Act
1767
Townshend Acts
1770
Boston Massacre
1773
Boston Tea Party
1774
Intolerable Acts
1774
First Continental
Congress
1775
Lexington and
Concord
1776
“Common Sense”
published/
Dec. of
Independence