Growing Tensions between the Colonies and Great Britain Summative Review
Vocabulary to Know
 Taxation without representation: colonists had no representative to vote on laws passed by the British
government
 Debts: unpaid bills
 Acts: laws
 Protest: showing publicly that you do not agree with something that is unfair
French and Indian War
 The British and the French were fighting over the Ohio River Valley. The British colonists wanted to
farm the rich soil and the French wanted to right to trap beavers so they could trade their furs.
 Most of the Native Americans were friendly with the French so they fought on their side.
 At first the British lost many battles because their red coats made them easy targets.
 Things changed once the British captured the city of Quebec in Canada.
 The British won the war and gained more land but were left with many unpaid bills.
Proclamation of 1763
 Many settlers were killed by Native Americans when they tried to move west.
 Great Britain announced the Proclamation of 1763 to protect the colonists.
 The law said that Native Americans could have all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains and the
settlers couldn’t move there.
Quartering Act
 The British government left thousands of soldiers in the colonies to protect the colonists.
 Britain thought they should help pay for this army.
 The Quartering Act required that all colonists provide a place to live, along with food, fuel, candles and
transportation, for the British soldiers.
 The colonists were angry and treated the soldiers badly.
Stamp Act
 Britain needed money to pay their debts from the French and Indian War so they passed the Stamp
Act.
 The Stamp Act required that all colonists pay taxes on printed papers. To prove the tax was paid they
had to show a large blue stamp on almost every printed piece of paper.
 The colonists were very angry that they had no say in making the law.
 The colonists showed they were angry by refusing to buy the stamps, protesting in the streets and
attacking and scaring off the tax collectors.
 The British government repealed the law after realizing that they had no way to enforce it.
Boston Massacre
 The colonists and British soldiers hated. Name calling and fist fights in the streets were common.
 A crowd of colonists threw stones and snowballs at a soldier standing guard at the building where
taxes were being collected.
 Other British soldiers arrived to help. The angry crowd moved toward the soldiers who panicked and
fired their guns. Five people died and six were wounded.
Boston Tea Party
 After the Boston Massacre the British government repealed all the unpopular taxes on the colonists
except the tax on tea. The colonists loved tea but many refused to buy it from Britain.
 The British government pass the Tea Act which lowered the price of tea but said that the colonists
could only buy tea from the British East India Company. They were hoping to force the colonists to buy
tea from them.
 The colonists were very angry and felt like this was another unfair law that was passed without their
approval.
 The colonists protested by dressing up as Native Americans and climbing aboard the tea ships in
Boston Harbor where they dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into the harbor.
Intolerable Acts
 After the Boston Tea Party the British government decided to punish the colonists by passing several
harsh laws.
 The Boston Port Act closed Boston Harbor. Many colonists lost their jobs and had no money for food
and supplies.
 In September of 1774, leaders from 12 colonies gathered in Philadelphia and agreed to fight the
Boston Port Act and the other Intolerable Acts. This gathering was called the First Continental
Congress.