Causes of the Revolutionary War Flashcards
Proclamation of 1763
British declaration that forbade colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mts.
Colonists’ Reactions:
colonists settled west anyways
(SCREW YOU GREAT BRITAIN!)
Currency Act
colonists could not coin their own currency-had to use British pound
Colonists’ Reactions
opposed-interrupted trade especially with French
Sugar Act
placed tax on sugar, molasses, rum, and other products
Colonists’ Reactions:
- hurt businesses
- threat to rights
Quartering Act
act requiring colonists to house British soldiers
Colonists’ Reactions:
- anxiety
- colonists feared Parliament intended to use troops to control their movements and restrict their freedom
Stamp Act
law that required all legal documents to carry an official stamp to show that tax was paid
*REPEALED
Colonists’ Reactions:
- petitioned the King
- boycott British goods
- Sons of Liberty
Townsend Acts
- placed duties (tax) on imports to the colonies
- allowed British officers to issue writs of assistance (search warrants)-search for illegal and smuggled goods
- REPEALED DUE TO BOYCOTTS
Colonists’ Reactions
- boycott
- protests-MA
- Daughters of Liberty
Boston Massacre
- British soldiers arrive in Boston
- colonists and youth surrounded British soldiers in the State House
- crowd grew bigger-mob
- soldiers feared for their safety and fired-killed 5
Colonists Reactions:
-John Adams defended soldiers-aquitted
-colonists saw Boston Massacre as a sign of
British tyranny
Tea Act
- law gave the East Indian Company the exclusive right to sell tea in the colonies
- restricted colonists from acting as shippers and merchants of tea
Boston Tea Party
-group of men, disguised as Native Americans, boarded tea ships and broken and threw tea chests overboard- 342 chests to protest the Tea Act
Colonists’ Reactions to the Tea Act/ Boston Tea Party
- Committees of Correspondence were formed to secretly exchange info about British policies and American resistance
- protests and tea smuggling
- offered to pay for tea if Tea Act was repealed- refused by Parliament
Intolerable Acts/ Coercive Acts
- closed Boston port (Boston Port Bill)
- banned town meetings (Massachusetts Government Act)
- replaced elected government into an appointed one
- increased royal governor’s power
- British soldiers cannot be tried by colonists (Administration of Justice Act)
- quartering of British officers (Quartering Act)
- extended the Canadian borders to cut off the western colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia. (Quebec Act)
Colonists Reactions:
- colonies sent food and money to Boston
- refuse to buy from Britain
- First Continental Congress
- colonies trained troops
- committee of correspondence
- boycott
- provincial Congress in MA
- militia prepared to fight
Lexington
700 British v 70 militiamen
- no one knows who fired first
- 8 militiamen dead
- colonists retreated and British continued to Concord
Colonists Reactions:
The Siege of Boston
-militia attacked Fort Ticonderoga to steal cannon to secure Boston
-Second Continental Congress
Who led the Second Continental Congress?
John Hancock
Concord
-British destroyed what was left of the military supplies since most was already relocated by the militia
-4,000 militiamen came
1,000 British came as well
-as British retreated to Boston, they were fired upon by the militia all the way back to Boston
Colonists’ Reactions:
- Continental Army formed- George Washing ton as general
- Battle of Bunker Hill
- Olive Branch Petition
Common Sense
pamphlet that convinced Americans it was time to fight for independence
-Thomas Paine
