The American Revolution, 1775-1789
Chapter 6: Section 4
Long-Term Causes
1. French and Indian War, 1756-1763
•
•
Britain accrued huge war debt & needed to find
way to pay it off (tax Americans)
Treaty of 1763 forced France to leave North
America Empire (erased French threat to
colonists)
2. Economic Restraints
•
Mercantilist system no longer working for the
Americans
1) trade freely
2) wanted to manufacture own goods
•
British Navigation Acts prevented them from
doing so
Long-Term Causes (cont.)
3. Policy of Salutary Neglect
•
•
British policy of leaving the 13 colonies pretty
much alone for first 150 years
Colonists dev. own system of government
almost independent of Britain
4. Process of Americanization
•
Colonies distance from Britain so far (3,000 mi.)
and so much time had elapsed (150 yrs) that
Americans had developed their own unique
culture (apart from Britain)
Long-Term Causes (cont.)
5. Unfair system of taxation
• Only their own colonial
assemblies (elected by the
colonists) had right to tax
them
• Parliament could not tax them
because Americans did NOT
elect them
• “No taxation without
representation!”
Immediate Causes, 1763 - 1775
1. Britain enacts new taxes
•
1764: Sugar Act- tax on sugar & molasses
(rum); hurt New England colonies most,
indirect tax (import tax) to regulate trade
•
1765: Stamp Act- tax on all printed materials
(newspapers, deeds, even playing cards)
•
•
•
Colonists argue against such a direct tax
Taxes cannot be levied for sole act of raising revenue
(only to regulate trade)
Stamp Act Congress meets in NY
1. Boycott all printed materials & British goods
•
Parliament repeals Stamp Act in 1766
Immediate Causes (cont.)
• 1767: Townshend Acts – Parliament places tax
on certain imports (lead, glass, tea, paint, paper)
• Colonists continue to resist and boycott British goods
(make their own)
2. Boston Massacre (March 1770)
• British troops stationed in Boston to oversee
unruly colonists and enforce taxes
• Group of American dockworkers begin hassling,
yelling & throwing snowballs at British soldiers
• British fire into group and kill 5 colonists
The Boston Massacre Through Patriot Eyes
Two Boston
patriots Paul
Revere and
Samuel
Adams
exaggerate
the event to
raise the
anger of the
other
colonists
After Boston Massacre, most of
Townshend Acts repealed, then
British pass Tea Act.
3. The Boston Tea Party (1773)
• British cut price of tea in attempt to save
struggling British East India Tea Co.
• Americans believe that this will drive
American tea merchants out of business
• Americans refuse to unload the tea
• December, 1773: group of Boston
patriots, disguised as Indians, board
British ships in Boston Harbor & dump 300
tons of tea
Britain Responds to the “Tea Party”
•
•
King George III and Parliament
demand that damages be paid
but Boston refuses
Parliament passes the
Intolerable Acts (1774)
1. Closes Boston Harbor
2. Repeals Massachusetts’ Charter
(self-govt)
3. Quartering Act requires troops to
be housed by colonists
4. All British soldiers to be tried in
Admiralty Courts (British military
courts)
Immediate Causes (cont.)
4. The First Continental Congress- 1774
•
Colonists meet to discuss response to Intolerable Acts
1.
2.
3.
Boycott British goods
Begin drawing up state constitutions
Start gathering weapons & ammunition
5. Lexington & Concord (Mass): April 19, 1775 – “The
Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
•
•
•
•
•
British troops march on minutemen to capture colony’s
stored weapons
Revere’s “Midnight Ride” to alarm colonists
Gunfire breaks out and 49 colonists killed/wounded
Americans ambush British all the way back to Boston
(270 killed/wounded)
Blood had been spilled
The Second Continental Congress, 1775
The Second Continental Congress
•
•
Meets to discuss events in Boston
Prepares for war
1. Names George Washington as Commander of
American “Continental Army”
2. States begin drawing up new constitutions and
raising militias
3. Thomas Jefferson called on to explain to rest of the
world why the Americans were justified in breaking
away from England
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
Preamble:
•
Influence of Locke’s ideas
1. Natural (inalienable) rights: life, liberty, pursuit of
happiness (property)
2. Power to govern from “consent of the governed”
Body:
•
Lists abuses of the British government towards
the colonies
Conclusion:
•
Declares the colonies are now to be considered
“independent states” and will be joined as the
United States of America
Jefferson’s Declaration
• Ratified by the Second Continental
Congress
July 4, 1776