Americas deteriorating relationship with Great Britain

Proclamation Act

1763, Banned settlement beyond the Appalachian mountains for the colonists.

Colonists viewed this as a way to deny them to own areas of land where they pleased. Many ignored this.

Sugar Act

1764, Import duties on sugar and other items were imposed (taxes).

Raised the issue of “taxation without representation”. Boston merchants started a boycott of British luxury goods

Stamp Act

1765, imposed the first direct tax on the American colonies, requiring a tax on all printed materials.

Sons of liberty used violence and intimidation against British stamp agents

The Stamp Act Congress sent a petition to King George III

Boycott from the Sugar act extended to all British goods

Stamp Act repealed, Declaratory Act Passed

1765, British government declared total power to legislate any laws governing the american colonies

Colonists celebrated the repeal, and relaxed the boycott, but ignore the Declaratory Act.

Quartering Act

1765, required colonists to house British soldiers and provide them with food

Colonists in New York violently refused

Townshend Revenue Acts

1767, new series of taxes on paper, tea, glass, lead and paint.

Another boycott of British luxury items, Sam Adams of Boston issued the “Circular letter” to denounce taxation and coordinate reactions among the colonists.

Boston Massacre

1770, Boston mob harassed British soldiers, soldiers fired point blank into the crowd.

Townshend acts were repealed, taxes on everything but tea were eliminated

Tea Act

1773, maintained taxes on tea, British East India Company a monopoly over tea, and undersold American merchants

Boston tea party. Boston colonial activists dressed up as Indians and dumped their cargo of tea in the Boston harbor

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)

1774, shut down the port in Boston, ended self-rule in Massachusetts, created a new quartering act for all colonies.

First continental congress met and called for noncompliance with coercive acts, formation of militias, and a boycott of and embargo on exports to Britain

Lexington and Concord

1775, British troops sought out militia weapons depots to destroy them.

Armed minutemen faced the British on Lexington Green, eight Americans died, and ten were wounded.

At Concord the Continental Congress met and called for volunteers, George Washington was appointed commander for the colonial army.