American Revolution: Causes and Early Events

Flashcards covering the political, economic, and ideological forces that led to the American Revolution, including key legislation, colonial grievances, significant events, and important figures.

Seven Years' War aftermath

Britain gained a vast North American empire but incurred huge debt, leading to demands for colonies to share the financial burden and a shift in colonial policy.

Republicanism

A political ideology modeled on ancient Greek and Roman republics, emphasizing subordination of private interests to the common good, virtue, self-sufficiency, civic involvement, and opposition to hierarchical institutions.

Radical Whigs

British commentators whose works were widely read in the colonies, warning against arbitrary monarchical power and corruption and urging vigilance to protect liberties.

Mercantilism

A British economic policy aiming to accumulate bullion (gold/silver) by exporting more than importing, requiring colonies to supply raw materials and trade exclusively with Britain.

Navigation Acts (1650+)

British laws requiring all colonial trade to be on British ships and goods destined for America to first land in Britain for duties, leading to colonial currency shortages.

Navigation Laws Enforcement (1763)

Strict naval patrols initiated by Britain to enforce existing trade restrictions, leading to heightened colonial resentment.

Sugar Act (1764)

British legislation that increased duty on foreign sugar, aimed at raising revenue; duties were later lowered after colonial protests.

Quartering Act (1765)

British legislation requiring colonies to house and feed British troops, which was widely viewed by colonists as an intrusion on their rights.

Stamp Act (1765)

British legislation requiring stamped documents, newspapers, playing cards, and other items, sparking 'No taxation without representation' protests and widespread boycotts in the colonies.

Royal Veto

The Crown's power to nullify colonial legislation, resented as a threat to self-government despite its rare use.

Admiralty Courts

British courts in the colonies that operated without juries, reversing the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' and straining cash-poor colonies sensitive to legal rights.

No taxation without representation

A rallying cry against the Stamp Act and other taxes, highlighting the principle that legitimate governance requires colonial consent for new taxes, not merely a fiscal protest.

Legislative vs. Taxation Authority

Colonial argument that while Parliament had authority to legislate on empire-wide matters, it lacked the right to impose taxes on colonists without the consent of their own colonial legislatures.

Virtual Representation

Lord Grenville's and British Parliament's claim that every Member of Parliament represented all British subjects, including Americans who did not directly vote for them; dismissed by colonists as a fiction.

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

A meeting of 27 delegates from 9 colonies in New York that drafted a formal statement of rights and grievances, sparking widespread non-importation agreements.

Non-importation Agreements

Colonial boycotts of British goods, adopted to protest acts like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts, encouraging the use of home-spun cloth.

Declaratory Act (1766)

British Parliament's re-assertion of its unlimited authority to 'bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever' after repealing the Stamp Act, marking a constitutional hardening of British authority.

Townshend Acts (1767)

British legislation imposing light duties on goods like glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea, with revenue specifically earmarked for royal governors' and judges' salaries to reduce colonial fiscal autonomy.

Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty

Grassroots enforcement groups that enforced colonial boycotts, often using methods like tar-and-feather punishments, and played a key role in making stamp agents resign.

Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)

An incident where British soldiers fired on a taunting crowd in Boston, killing 5 colonists (including Crispus Attucks), which polarized public opinion and inflamed colonial outrage.

Committees of Correspondence (1772)

A network initiated by Samuel Adams in Boston to spread protest ideas, coordinate resistance, and disseminate propaganda among towns and colonies, fostering intercolonial unity.

Tea Act (1773)

British legislation granting the East India Company a monopoly to sell tea in the colonies, even cheaper than smuggled tea, viewed by colonists as a political trap to force acceptance of Parliament's tax right.

Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773)

A decisive act of open defiance where Bostonians disguised as Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, protesting the Tea Act.

King George III

The young British monarch who, along with his ministers Lord North and Charles Townshend, backed the policies leading to increased colonial resentment and eventual revolution.

Samuel Adams

A radical agitator and organizer who initiated the Committees of Correspondence in Boston and played a significant role in fostering intercolonial unity and resistance.

Crispus Attucks

A mixed-race man identified as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre, later recognized as a martyr of the American Revolution.

John Adams

A future president who famously defended the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre, but later played a key role as a statesman in the American Revolution.

Thomas Hutchinson

The Massachusetts governor who, despite deeming the tea tax unjust, maintained colonists had no right to defy the law; his order for tea ships to unload further inflamed local anger.

Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) (1774)

A series of punitive British acts, including the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, and a new Quartering Act, intended to punish Boston but which instead unified the colonies.

Boston Port Act

Part of the Intolerable Acts, which closed Boston Harbor until damages for the Tea Party were paid, viewed by colonists as a 'massacre of American liberty'.

Massachusetts Government Act

Part of the Intolerable Acts, which swept away many chartered rights and restricted town meetings, curtailing local self-government in Massachusetts.

Administration of Justice Act

Part of the Intolerable Acts, which allowed British officials accused of crimes against colonists to be tried in Britain, raising colonial fears that officials would escape punishment.

Quartering Act (1774 revised)

A revised act granting British authorities the power to lodge soldiers in private homes, seen by colonists as a direct intrusion on private property.

Quebec Act (1774)

British legislation, passed the same year as the Intolerable Acts, that guaranteed French-Canadian Catholic religion, retained French civil law, and extended Quebec's boundaries to the Ohio River, alarming land speculators and fueling anti-Catholic sentiment in the colonies.

First Continental Congress (1774)

A meeting of 55 delegates from 12 colonies (Georgia absent) that drafted a Declaration of Rights, issued appeals, and created The Association for a complete boycott of British goods with the goal of repealing punitive legislation.

The Association (1774)

Created by the First Continental Congress, it called for a complete boycott of British goods through non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption, considered the most significant outcome of the Congress.

Lexington & Concord (April 1775)

The site of initial skirmishes between British troops and colonial Minutemen, where British efforts to seize gunpowder and arrest leaders led to American deaths at Lexington and a fierce British retreat, known as the 'shot heard 'round the world'.

Minutemen

Colonial militia who were prepared to fight at a moment's notice, famously clashing with British troops at Lexington and Concord.

George Washington

Acknowledged as a 'giant among men,' he was the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Benjamin Franklin (Diplomat)

A master diplomat who successfully secured crucial French financial and military aid for the American cause during the Revolution.

Whig Faction (British)

A minority British political group that sympathized with the colonists, hoping that a British defeat might limit King George III's power.

Marquis de Lafayette

A 19-year-old French nobleman who became a major general in the Continental Army and leveraged his family influence to obtain French support for the American Revolution.

Franco-American Alliance (1778)

A formal alliance that provided crucial French guns, gunpowder, ships, and funds, becoming essential to the American revolutionary effort.

Articles of Confederation (1781)

The first governing document of the United States, adopted late in the conflict, which functioned more as a loose alliance with a weak central government, hampered by state jealousy and currency crises.

Continental Currency

Paper money printed in massive amounts by the Continental Congress, which rapidly depreciated ('not worth a continental') and led to severe inflation during the Revolution.

Valley Forge (1777-1778)

The winter encampment of the Continental Army where soldiers endured severe hardships, including pervasive lack of food, clothing, and supplies, but maintained their resolve.

Baron von Steuben

A German drill master who, despite speaking no English, transformed raw American recruits at Valley Forge into a disciplined and effective fighting force through rigorous training.

Women in the Revolution

Women who managed farms and businesses while men fought, served as camp followers (cooking, selling goods), and sometimes disguised themselves to fight, playing crucial support roles in the war effort.

African Americans in the Revolution (Patriots)

Over 5,000 African Americans, mostly free Blacks, who served in the Continental Army in various roles (soldiers, cooks, spies, drivers) at key battles like Trenton and Saratoga.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation (1775)

A British proclamation offering freedom to enslaved Virginians who joined the British forces, leading thousands of Black Loyalists to fight for Britain, with many evacuated after the war.

Profiteers

Individuals who sold goods to the British at inflated prices during the Revolution, undermining patriot morale and commitment to the American cause.