Events Leading to the Declaration of Independence
Directions: Use Ch 3 Sec 4 and Ch 4 Secs 1 and 2 and your own reasoning and critical thinking
skills (especially for those with a *) to complete the chart. Sometimes, the result of one event will
also be part of the cause of the next event.
Cause
-F + I War added much territory.
Pontiac’s Rebellion: Indians resisted
British rule.
-British realized respecting them was
cheaper and more effective than war.
-Keeping the colonists closer to the coast will make them easier to
control.
-There was much smuggling going on
-Britain needed money to pay off its
debt from the F + I War
-Colonists paid less in taxes than those
in Britain
-Defending the colonies was expensive,
colonists should pay their part
-There was a need to organize protests
against the new taxes
-Some leaders feared the violence of the
protests.
-Wanted to control and coordinate
protest activities
-Townshend thought the colonists
would accept an indirect tax (they
had previously)
-Wanted to prove the principle that
they could tax the colonies
-Needed tax revenue
-Britain sent 4000 troops to calm the
situation.
-Bostonians resented presence of
soldiers, who competed for jobs
Event
1. Proclamation
of 1763
2. Sugar + Stamp
Acts,
1764 + 65
Response/Result/Outcome/Effect
-Colonists were irritated and resented
attempts to limit their expansion.
-They generally ignored the barrier,
and the British couldn’t enforce it.
-Colonists protested the 1st Direct Tax,
since they were not represented in
Parliament
-Intellectual protest, economic
boycotts, violence intimidation
-Colonists resented it, builds tension
3. Quartering Act,
with British troops
1765
-Mobs intimidated tax collectors +
4. Sons of Liberty
governors.
formed,
-Every stamp collector resigned in MA
1765
by 1766
-British merchants and manufacturers
5. Stamp Act
convinced Parliament to repeal the
Congress and
Stamp Act
Non-importation -British pass Declaratory Act
agreements, 1765
-Colonists rejected taxation principle
6. Townshend
and resented that local gov’ts were
Acts,
made more independent
1767
-More boycotts and violent protests
-MA legislature was disbanded
-Hancock’s Liberty was seized
-Riots broke out in protest of the
seizure
7. Boston
Massacre,
1770
-Colonists were outraged- confirmed
their fears about the Quartering Act
-Creation of Committees of
Correspondence
-Parliament backed down after the
Boston Massacre
-Wanted to assert right to tax and the
“principle of Parliamentary
supremacy”
-Colonists thought the cheap tea was a
tax
-Parliament wanted to be reimbursed
and to teach a lesson to the other
colonies
*-Other colonies sympathize with MA
and see the same restrictions could
be placed on them
8. Repeal of all
taxes, except
those on tea,
1770
9. Boston Tea
Party,
1773
10. The
Coercive/
Intolerable Acts,
1774
11. First
Continental
Congress,
1774
-Colonists boycotted tea- on principle
-Britain allowed British East India
Company to ship directly to the
colonies (tea was cheaper, so they
thought it would break the boycott)
Parliament was outraged and set out
to punish New England
-More violence- tarring and feathering,
forced closure of courts
-Rejected British control over their
local gov’ts
-Announced a boycott of all British
imports
-Established local committees (self
gov’t that bypassed Parliament)
-“Expanded the ranks of the politically
active:” farmers, artisans,
shopkeepers, etc.
-Most still loyal to King, viewed
Parliament as the problem