To Fight or Not to Fight?
Name: ________________________
Use your text and the internet to complete the following questions.
1. What was one benefit of the colonies to England? How did the
colonies benefit from being part of the British Empire?
2. What was one cost to England of maintaining the Colonies? What
was a cost to the colonies of remaining in the British Empire?
3. Before 1763, who was really benefiting more from the colonies being
a part of the British Empire; England or the Colonies? Why do you think
so?
4. What were the Navigation Acts of 1651 - 1696?
5. What was the Molasses Act of 1733?
6. Since the British government had control over the colonies did it have
the right to require the colonists to sell and buy certain products only
from England? Did it have the right to charge a tax on items such as
sugar bought from other countries? Why or why not.
7. Many colonial merchants did not pay the tax on molasses but
smuggled it into the colonies. Was this an appropriate solution to their
desire to not pay the tax?
8. What were three effects of the French & Indian war on England?
9. What effect did the end of the French & Indian war have on the
colonists?
10. What did the Royal Proclamation (1763) say that the colonists could
not do? How did the colonists feel about this?
11. What are two reasons for the British Parliament passing the Sugar
Act?
12. The Sugar Act increased taxes on what items?
13. Why did the British Parliament pass the Stamp Act?
14. What did the Stamp Act put a tax on?
15. Did the colonists agree to this Stamp Tax?
16. What were the Townshend duties suppose to do for the British
Parliament?
17. What items did the Townshend duties tax?
18. What did the British Parliament so when the colonists opposed this
act?
19. Was it fair for the British Parliament to tax the colonists more to
make up for the cut in the British land tax?
20. What action did the colonists take against these three taxes?
21. How did Parliament react to the colonial protest?
22. What did the colonial phrase "No Taxation Without Representation"
mean?
23. What did the Tea Act of 1733 allow the British East India Company
to do that the Colonial merchants could not do?
24. How did the colonists first react to the Tea Act of 1773?
25. What happened on December 16, 1773?
26. Was it right for the colonists to destroy tea that didn't belong to
them?
27. Should the colonists have had to pay for the tea that they
destroyed?
28. How did the Boston Massacre begin?
29. What were the "snowballs" that the colonists threw at the soldiers
filled with?
30. Did the British soldiers have a right to protect themselves from the
"snowballs" that were being thrown by the colonists?
31. Do you think the British soldiers could have stopped the colonists
without firing their guns? Explain why you think "yes" or "no"
32. What were the Intolerable Acts?
33. What was formed by the colonists because of the Intolerable Acts?
34. What was the purpose of the First Continental Congress?