The Road to Revolution & Struggle for Independence |
| The Road to Revolution Fact 1 | The British had gained victory in the French and Indian Wars which had lasted for 75 years, the final conflict was the French Indian War from 1754 to 1763. | |
| The Road to Revolution Fact 2 | The British incurred a massive war debt and raise revenue from the American colonies to help reduce the debts. | | |
| The Road to Revolution Fact 3 | The British decided to keep, and increase the standing army in America, and meet the costs of this by taxing the colonists and making them pay for the food and lodgings of the hated Redcoats
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 4 | The British reversed its policy of Salutary Neglect enabling them to tighten their control in America and enforce the Navigation Acts and other laws that existed and imposing new taxes on goods
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 5 | Great Britain then imposed new taxes on goods. The 1689 English Bill of Rights had put into place a constitutional form of government in which the rights and liberties of the individual were protected under English law. The Americans argued that they were not afforded the same rights.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 6 | The most notorious of the new taxes was the Stamp Act of 1765 which imposed taxes on legal papers, newspapers and pamphlets.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 7 | The colonists reacted violently and refused to pay the Stamp tax, and the British Parliament repealed it the following year. Refer to the Reaction to the Stamp Act
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 8 | Violent opposition and the Reaction to the Stamp Act resulted in the British repealing the act in 1766
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 9 | The American colonists denied the right of the British Parliament to tax them. Britain disagreed and determined to establish its right and authority over the American colonies passed the Townshend Acts that placed taxes on items imported by the colonists including glass, lead, paints, paper and tea
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 10 | The American colonists refused to buy imported British goods, and
Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except the tax on tea...
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 11 | The American colonists reaction to the Tea Act was to boycott British goods. They would not order tea from London but the the East India Company was still allowed to send it. Five towns to which the tea was sent the tea back or destroyed it.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 12 | In 1773 Massachusetts patriots called the Sons of Liberty, dressed as Mohawk Indians, protesting against the British Tea Act and destroyed the tea loaded on ships in Boston Harbor. This act of defiance became known as the Boston Tea Party
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 13 | The British Parliament responded by attempting to punish Massachusetts by passing a series of laws which the American called the Intolerable Acts.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 14 | The actions by the British led to the calling and the meeting of the First Continental Congress.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 15 | All of the 13 American colonies became united by the establishment of the Committees of Correspondence that communicated the dangers of 'taxation without representation' to all Americans
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 16 | In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became governor of Massachusetts in 1774
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 17 | General Gage realized that the colonists were gathering stores and
cannon. He attempted to destroy the stores, and this brought on the Battle of Lexington and the Battle of Concord, which opened the American War for Independence.
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| The Road to Revolution Fact 18 | The Road to Revolution had reached its destination
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The Road to Revolution & Struggle for Independence |
