The Imperial Crisis
1763 - 1775
Developing Crisis
The colonies remained loyal Englishmen, though they
continued to be unruly: they are seen on the home
island as bordering on disloyal if not out right disloyal.
The colonists began to lobby for representation.
They did not want representation in Parliament.
They knew they would be outnumbered and ineffective
as representatives in Parliament.
The colonists wanted the king to consult with their
representative assemblies as he did with Parliament
putting their assemblies on a equal basis with
Parliament.
The New Imperial System
Three goals:
1. Provide for colonies’ security
2. Reassert crown’s authority over colonies
3. Shift financial burden of war debt and
colonial defense to colonies
Proclamation of 1763
The New Imperial System
Opening Moves
Sugar Act 1764 – taxes sugar, coffee and other imports
Currency Act of 1764 – prohibited use of colonial money: only the
British pound was permissible
Quartering Act of 1765 – required the garrisoning of British soldiers at
colonial expense
Stamp Act – Required a stamp on newspapers, pamphlets, cards, death
certificates, etc.
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Problems: tax with the sole purpose of raising revenue for England not
colonies
Results
VA (led by Patrick Henry [laudanum head]) declared only it had the right to
tax Virginians
Mob activity (burning the tax collectors in effigy; liberty poles) tar and
feather
Repealed in 1766
George Grenville and
his Stamps
The Stamp Act Crisis
Colonial Responses
Political Actions
Popular Actions
British Responses
 British Merchants seek relief
 Parliament Repeals the act in 1766
 Parliament passes the Declaratory Act
 Parliament passes Revenue Act
Lessons Learned
The Townshend Crisis
Townshend Revenue Act of 1766
- Duty on lead, glass, paint, paper and tea
Provocative moves
- Seeks confrontation
Colonial responses
- Sons of Liberty
- Circular letter
Parliament’s response
- Dissolve Assemblies
- Increase British troops strength
The Boston Massacre
The Last Imperial Crisis
Tea Act (1773)
Boston Tea Party (1774)
The Coercive Acts (1774)
The First Continental Congress (1774)
Lexington & Concord (1775)
The Boston Tea Party
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
Closed port of Boston
Powers of Mass. Assembly & town meetings
curtailed
Permitted quartering of troops in private houses
Imperial officers exempted from trial
The Opening Salvos
September 1774 - Congress recommends that the
colonies begin military preparations
December 1774 - George III declares the New England
colonies to be in a state of rebellion
In early 1775 Gen. Gage ordered to restore royal rule in
Mass by:
1. Closing Massachusetts Assembly
2. Arrest its leading members
3. Capturing arms stockpiled by militia
By spring 1775, colonial leaders and the British
commander both expected fighting to break out.
19 April 1775
General Thomas Gage
Commander-in-Chief, North America
Governor, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Order British column to Lexington and Concord
searching for John Hancock, Sam Adams and
munitions stores.
The midnight ride of Paul
Revere & William Dawes
Opening Moves
“The shot heard ‘round the world”
Colonial Response to the New Imperial
System
Benjamin Franklin - “Repeal the laws, Renounce
the Right, Recall the troops, Refund the
money, and return to the old methods”