Video Notes (Crash Course):
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British had the Seven Years War and was in deep debt (wars are expensive) so
taxes were raised especially for colonists (since the war was mostly beneficial for
them)
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Colonists smuggled to avoid taxes that were made by Britain after the war
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Colonists were upset because had no say in taxes (lack of parliamentary
representation)
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Sugar Act lowered taxes but ruled out smuggling which is what made colonists
upset (not the taxes)
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Stamp Act: all printed material are required to have a stamp (stamps had to be
bought), this was purely for revenue, which greatly upset the colonists.
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The Stamp Act especially affected newspapers and lawyers who used lots of
paper (just the people you want to anger about taxes)
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Stamp Act Congress: colonists of course decided to boycott; the Congress being
the first time the colonies acted in a united way (education people of their
liberties, spurred street action, fun stuff like that)
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Eventually Britain repealed the Stamp Act, but passed the Declaratory Act (which
was basically their way of saying that the Parliament had the authority to pass
laws that applied to both Britain and the Americas)
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Britain started enforcing stricter laws on smuggling (which colonists of course
didn’t like)
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Created Daughters of Liberty (Sons of Liberty was made first though)
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Although artisans benefited, merchants were not happy since the goods they
usually imported and exported were now being boycotted
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Boston Massacre wasn’t actually a massacre? (5 people died)
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After the colonists’ protests only the tax on tea was left
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Tea Act gave cheaper tea to colonists, which actually lowered their tea prices?
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Boston Tea Party dumped 4 million dollars worth of tea
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Some colonists were angry because cheap tea would cut into profits of smugglers
and established tea merchants
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Tea was so universal that colonists thought if tea was taxed, anything could be
taxed
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Colonists thought that Boston Tea Party would make Britain back down but
instead, Britain passed series of acts they came to call the Intolerable Acts
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Some of the Intolerable Acts:
Massachusetts Government Act: no self-government allowed
Quartering Act: colonists must house British soldiers when ordered to; Quebec
Act did something I didn’t catch)
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Reaction to Intolerable Acts pretty much started American Revolution
(Massachusetts released resolution basically telling colonists to disobey the Acts,
stop paying taxes, and prepare for war)
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Delegates from different colonies met up and created Continental Congress (the
rebellion stopped being entirely about standing up to Britain and a little more
about freedom and natural rights)
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American War for Independence and the American Revolutionary War were not
the same thing
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Keep in mind proclaiming yourself an independent nation and being an
independent nation are two different things (obviously)
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NOT ALL COLONISTS WERE PRO-INDEPENDENCE
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Common Sense by Thomas Paine (kind of like the Harry Potter of their time so
basically it was a pretty big deal)
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Unrelated but Paine died penniless and only eight people attended his funeral
because of his ridicule of Christianity