The Road to the American Revolutionary War YEAR EVENT/ISSUE IMPACT COLONIAL /BRTITISH RESPONSE 1763 Proclamation Line Cut Off Western Land Negative Obstacle to Westward Expansion and Economic opportunity thru new land 1764 Currency Act Specie, No Paper Money Negative Burdensome, lack of specie 1764 Sugar Act Replaced 1733 Molasses Act Negative Lowered British Molasses Hurt Smugglers By 3 pence Much illicit trade British versus Colonial Prosecutions No Colonial Consent 1765 Stamp Act Tax on most colonial documents Negative an internal tax No Colonial Consent Virtual versus Real Representation 1765 Stamp Act Congress 9 of 13 Colonial Representatives New York gather to discuss colonial Position & response Formal Letters of Protest Resolutions & Non- Importation British Radical Whigs Sympathetic British Merchants Hurt from Boycott Push for repeal of act 1
1765!st Quartering Act Housing, employment of British Negative soldiers in the colonies. Economically burdensome 20 shillings/year Threatening Standing Army/Police State 1766 Stamp Act Repealed Stamp Act is null and void in British resent Colonial coercion colonies Colonists understand that no fundamental political change occurred. 1766 Declaratory Act Britain s Right to Tax Negative Parliamentary Supremacy Rights as Englishmen ignored 1767 Townshend Act & Tax on luxury goods Negative Paint, glass, tea Revenue Act British Colonial Officials Now paid by British no longer Less power & influence of local By colonial assemblies assemblies 1767 Restraining Act Dissolution of local assemblies New York assembly dissolved, for non- compliance of Quartering later complied Act Undermining local colonial rule 1770 Boston Massacre 5 Bostonians Killed @ British Negative British Customs House by British Colonial perception of British violent Soldiers abuse of power Trial of British soldiers & Captain Used as Anti- British propaganda Most acquitted 2
1770 Townshend Act(s) Repealed All luxury goods under Townshend Acts repealed except for Tea 1773 (new)tea Act Decreased the price of tea Negative Monopoly & Bail out to East Hurt smugglers of Dutch tea India Company Hurt middlemen Eliminated middlemen Revealed problems with Mercantilism 1773 Boston Tea Party Trespass & Destruction of British enraged British property Humiliated by colonial gesture politics 1774 Coercive/Intolerable Acts Revoked Massachusetts charter Loss of independent colonial status Prohibited Town Meetings no habeas corpus Closed Boston Harbor 2 nd Quartering Act threatened colonial safety 1774 British mobilize troops Colonial (Massachusetts) Negative armories seized by British Massachusetts threatened militarily Charlestown & Cambridge 1774 Quebec Act Defined boundaries for French Perceived by colonists as punitive Canadians 3
1774 1 st Continental Congress Colonial meeting attended by British on greater alert representatives from the different colonies multi- colonial decision to stand by Massachusetts Declaration of Resolves Non- Importation Committees of Observation & Safety Agree to Meet again in May, 1775 1775 Lexington and Concord British march towards Concord Shots exchanged April Massachusetts militia meet The shot heard round the world British on Lexington Green 1 st battle of American Revolution 1775 2 nd Continental Congress May meeting in Philadelphia May 65 delegates from 13 colonies Declaration of Causes & Necessities For Taking up Arms Establish the Continental Army Appoint George Washington Funding the war 1775 Siege of Boston Battles of Bunker and Breed s Hill British victory with heavy loses June 1775 Fort Ticonderoga Lake Champlain American Victory Connecting New France with New England 4
1775 British Proclamation of Rebellion Declared Colonists were in a Colonists now entertain the idea that September state of rebellion they are rebels 1775 British Proclamation to Free Slaves and Indentures Threat to colonial unity and social November structure class warfare 1775 Prohibitory Act Prohibited all trade with Hurt economy through loss of trade December 1776 Common Sense Introduced the idea of Colonial Independence Colonists consider this January Thomas Paine dangerous proposition 5