Descent into Revolution
Navigation Acts
• Acts of Parliament that governed the
imperial economic system.
• Limit free trade.
• Limit economic actions of the colonies.
• Before 1763 frequently ignored by
Englishmen in America.
• Before 1763 not aggressively enforced.
Results of the Seven Years’ War
• British government nearly broke.
• British see the war having been fought
largely for the American colonists.
• General feeling that Americans should pay
their fair share.
• Government now understands it has an
empire.
Proclamation of 1763
• London assumes control of colonial Indian
policy.
• British believe that Indians have a right to
their own territory.
• Settlement and trade prohibited beyond the
mountains.
• Policy largely ignored by colonists.
Grenville Acts
• Sugar Act of 1764
– Designed to raise revenue
• Currency Act of 1764
• Stamp Act of 1765
– First act aimed directly at the colonies
– Violations to be tried in Admiralty Courts
• Quartering Act
– Americans should pay for their protection
American reactions . . .
• Stamp Act Congress, October 1765
• Non-importation
British response . . .
• Stamp Act repealed
• Declaratory Act, 1766
“Townshend Acts”
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Light taxes on a variety of goods, 1767.
Non-importation renewed.
British troops stationed in Boston, 1768.
5 March, 1770: Lord North moves repeal . . .
5 March, 1770: “Boston Massacre”
• April 1770: Townshend Acts repealed except
tax on tea.
• June 1772: Gaspee burned.
• May 1772: “Regulating Act”
– Designed to help East India Company
– 3 penny tax on tea
• Dec. 1772: Boston “Tea Party”
– also in Philadelphia, Charleston, and New York
“Coercive Acts” Mar-May 1774
• Boston Port Act
• Massachusetts Government Act
• Administration of Justice Act
• Quebec Act
• Sept.-Oct. 1774: First Continental Congress.
• April 1775: Lexington and Concord.
• Colonial militia besiege Boston.
• 10 May: Ethan Allen takes Ft.
Ticonderoga.
• 10 May: Second Continental Congress
meets.
• 15 June: Washington appointed
commanding general of colonial forces.
• 17 June: Battle of Bunker Hill.
• 23 Aug: George III declares colonies
in rebellion
• 10 Jan. 1776: Tom Paine,
Common Sense.
• 17 Mar: British evacuate Boston.
4 July, 1776: Declaration of Independence.