The Road to Revolution and the Revolutionary War

Mercantilism

An economic policy created by Oliver Cromwell's Rump Parliament where the mother country takes raw materials from individual colonies, creates finished products, and sells them back at high prices.

Navigation Acts

British laws that dictated how colonial goods were transported.

Glorious Revolution

A historical turning point during the reign of William and Mary that questioned the necessity of a king and fueled conflict between British Protestants and French Catholics.

Albany Plan

A proposal created by Benjamin Franklin for the colonies to unionize ('parts to whole'), which was not adopted.

Proclamation Line of 1763

A boundary asserted by Britain designating who could settle where; it was ignored by colonists and provoked Pontiac's Native American rebellion.

King George III

German monarch who ascended the throne through lineage, did not speak English, and allegedly suffered from porphyria, a blood disease in which toxins accumulate due to a lack of oxygen.

Sugar Act

British legislation taxing sugar, indigo dye, foreign coffee, and wine, marking the beginning of Britain taxing everyday colonial goods beyond mercantilism.

Currency Act (1764)

A 1764 act requiring the mandatory use of British currency after colonists started printing their own money to avoid taxes, carrying a penalty of 1,000 pounds.

Stamp Act

A tax levied on printed goods, vellum (animal skin writing material), and parchment, requiring stamps on legal records, birth certificates, and every page of newspapers under penalty of treason.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Two secretive Patriot organizations that coordinated meetings in homes and directed boycotts until the Stamp Act was repealed.

Boston Massacre

A confrontation initiated by colonists throwing rocks at British soldiers that resulted in 10 deaths; two soldiers were convicted and discharged from military service.