Short-Term Causes of the American Revolution

Vocabulary flashcards focusing on key events, laws, individuals, and concepts leading up to the American Revolutionary War based on the lecture notes.

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766)

An armed conflict launched by a loose confederation of Native American tribes, led by Ottawa Chief Pontiac, against westward expanding British settlers and settlements after the French and Indian War.

Proclamation of 1763

A British policy that banned all colonial settlement west of the Appalachian mountains to avoid conflicts with Native Americans.

William Pitt

The British prime minister who took direct control of fighting in 1756, focusing on the colonial theater and achieving military success that nearly bankrupted the British treasury.

Sugar Act (1764)

Also known as the Revenue Act, this law revised import duties on sugar, molasses, textiles, coffee, and indigo to help reduce a 130 million pound war debt, acting as the first direct tax on colonists.

Salutary Neglect

A British policy that promoted colonial self-government where the mother country neglected or ignored the colonies as long as they provided raw materials.

Stamp Act (1765)

A law requiring stamped paper for legal documents, printed media, contracts, newspapers, playing cards, and dice to support the defense of the colonies.

Admiralty Courts

Special courts operating without colonial juries where violators of the Sugar Act and Stamp Act were tried, violating the colonists' rights to a jury trial.

Sons of Liberty

A secret resistance group co-founded by Samuel Adams in the summer of 1765 to harass customs workers, stamp agents, and royal governors.

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

A meeting held in New York City from October 7 to 25, 1765, bringing together 27 delegates from nine colonies to organize joint resistance under the principle of no taxation without representation.

Declaratory Act (1766)

A 1766 act that reaffirmed Parliament's right to pass any law it wished binding the colonies and people of America.

Quartering Act (1765)

A law that obliged colonial assemblies to furnish British troops with adequate housing and provisions, forcing legislatures to pay for a standing army.

Townshend Acts (1767)

Legislation that placed new import duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea.

Writs of Assistance (1767)

Provisions under the Townshend Acts that allowed British officials to search colonial properties without warrants.

Daughters of Liberty

Colonial women who participated in economic resistance by making homemade clothes and avoiding taxed British goods.

Massachusetts Circular Letter (1768)

A statement written by Samuel Adams and James Otis Jr., adopted on February 11, 1768, protesting the unconstitutional Townshend Acts and urging intercolonial unity.

Boston Massacre (1770)

A March 1770 confrontation where British soldiers fired into a stone-throwing mob, killing five colonists, including John Gray, James Caldwell, and Crispus Attucks.

Committees of Correspondence (1772-1776)

A network of communication formed throughout the colonies to discuss threats to freedom, representation, taxes, and unfair treatment.

Tea Act (1773)

A law granting the East India Company the right to sell tea directly to the colonies tax-free, undercutting local colonial tea merchants.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

An event on December 16, 1773, where Sons of Liberty members disguised as Native Americans boarded the Dartmouth and dumped 18,000 lbs of East India tea overboard.

Boston Port Act (1774)

A provision of the Intolerable Acts that closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for the East India tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party.

Quebec Act (1774)

An act establishing the Province of Quebec that expanded its borders into the Ohio River Valley, blocking colonial westward expansion.

First Continental Congress (1774)

A gathering of 56 delegates from twelve colonies in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774, to address grievances and coordinate response to the Intolerable Acts.

The Association

An agreement created during the First Continental Congress enforcing non-importation, non-consumption, non-exportation, and a ban on the slave trade to pressure Great Britain into repealing the Coercive Acts.