HIST 2010 - The Road to Revolution

Mercantilism

based on the idea that a nation's wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and so involved increasing trade that often benefits the mother country over its colonies.

Navigation Acts

Laws that governed trade between England and its colonies. Colonists were required to ship certain products exclusively to England. These acts made colonists very angry because they were forbidden from trading with other countries.

Sugar Act

law passed by the British Parliament setting taxes on molasses and sugar imported by the colonies

Stamp Act

1765; law that taxed printed goods, including: playing cards, documents, newspapers, etc.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting of delegations from many of the colonies, the congress was formed to protest the newly passed Stamp Act It adopted a declaration of rights as well as sent letters of complaints to the king and parliament, and it showed signs of colonial unity and organized resistance.

Quartering Act

1765 - Required the colonials to provide food, lodging, and supplies for the British troops in the colonies.

Sons of Liberty

A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Daughters of Liberty

This organization supported the boycott of British goods. They urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods that were previously available only from Britain. They believed that way, the American colonies would become economically independent.

Declaratory Act

Act passed in 1766 after the repeal of the stamp act; stated that Parliament had authority over the the colonies and the right to tax and pass legislation "in all cases whatsoever."

Townshend Act

A tax that the British Parliament placed on leads, glass, paint and tea

Boston Massacre

The first bloodshed of the American Revolution (1770), as British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans

Committees of Correspondence

organized by patriot leader Samuel Adams, was a system of communication between patriot leaders in New England and throughout the colonies. They provided the organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament and help to send delegates to the First Continental Congress.

Tea Act of 1773

Gave the East India Company an unfair business advantage over colonial merchants.

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 protest against British taxes in which Boston colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped valuable tea into Boston Harbor.

Coercive or Intolerable Acts

This series of laws were very harsh laws that intended to make Massachusetts pay for its resistance. It also closed down the Boston Harbor until the Massachusetts colonists paid for the ruined tea. Also forced Bostonians to shelter soldiers in their own homes.

First Continental Congress

Convened on September 5, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. The congress voted for a boycott of British imports, and sent a petition to King George III, conceding to Parliament the power of regulation of commerce but stringently objecting to its arbitrary taxation and unfair judicial system.