Britain vs. Colonists

King George III

George III was the king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820. From 1814 to 1820, he also served as king of Hanover. In his time as king of Great Britain and Ireland, he made a name for himself as a leading power in Europe.

Paul Revere

Paul Revere, born in 1735, played an important role in warning fellow colonists that British troops were marching to Lexington and Concord in 1775. Because of his help, local minutemen were ready for battle when the British troops got to Lexington. Revere was a silversmith who supported the Patriot cause during the 1770s. He took part in the Boston Tea Party. He was also a rider in Boston's Committee of Safety, which meant that he rode his horse from Boston to New York and from Boston to Philadelphia to share information.

Declaration and Resolves

The Declaration and Resolves was a document issued in 1774 by the First Continental Congress, a meeting of representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies. They were responding to the Intolerable Acts that Great Britain had passed earlier that year. The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws that punished colonists in Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. These laws closed Boston Harbor. They gave Britain more control over the Massachusetts government and forced Bostonians to provide housing for British troops. People in all of the colonies objected to the Intolerable Acts.

Proclamation of 1763

The Proclamation of 1763 was a law that British Parliament passed in 1763, soon after the British defeated France in the French and Indian War. By winning that war, Great Britain gained control over the Ohio River Valley. This territory had previously belonged to France. British colonists began moving into the territory, but the presence of new settlers threatened some of the Native Americans in the region. Pontiac, an Ottawa leader, led several raids on British forts.

Navigation Acts

In 1651, the British Parliament began passing a series of acts called the Navigation Acts, with the intent of controlling the transport of goods to and from the colonies. The first act stated that all goods must be transported in British ships. The second act, passed in 1660, limited where colonists could ship their goods; it even limited the sale of certain goods to England alone. The 1660 act also stated that a certain percentage of ship crewmembers must be English. Parliament continued passing new Navigation Acts throughout the late 1600s, and then well into the 1700s. The goal was always the same: to control where the colonists could send their goods.

Townshend Acts

In 1767, Charles Townshend, the head of the Treasury in Great Britain, enacted The Townshend Acts. He created them in an attempt to raise money for England and assert that the British retained full power over the American colonies. The acts imposed taxes on imported goods such as glass, paper, paint, and tea.

mercantilism

Mercantilism is an economic theory that was practiced by European powers from the 1500s to the 1700s. Nations that practiced mercantilism believed that a nation could become more powerful if it followed certain economic principles. One of these principles was accumulating wealth in the form of precious metals like gold and silver. These metals were used as currency. The other important principle of mercantilism was having a favorable balance of trade. That meant that a country sold more goods to other countries than it brought in from other countries.

parliament

Parliament is the term used for the lawmaking bodies of Great Britain and many other nations around the world. Such other nations include Canada, Austria, Romania, Zimbabwe, Italy, and Portugal, among many others. Most parliaments have two houses: an upper house and a lower house. Usually the members of the upper house are appointed or hold their offices through heredity, and the members of the lower house are elected. In addition to passing laws, most parliaments have control of governmental spending. In most parliaments the head of the executive branch, called the prime minister, is also a member of parliament.

Redcoats

Redcoats was a term that American colonists used during the American Revolution to refer to soldiers in the British army. The term referred to the bright red color of the British soldiers' uniforms, which in some cases made them easy targets during battles. The continental soldiers' uniforms, on the other hand, were brown or blue, and colonial militias had different uniforms.

Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams, born in 1722, was a leader of the Patriots before and during the American Revolution. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a governor of Massachusetts. Raised in Boston, Adams was one of the first people in the colonies to oppose the British policy of taxation without representation.

Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, was an agreement between the United States and Great Britain that officially concluded the American Revolution. It was the climax of more than a year of peace talks and preliminary peace agreements. The treaty was part of a collection of treaties called the Peace of Paris.

Currency Act

The regulation of currency in the British colonies was a difficult task. This was mainly because colonies had their own system of value; a trade good or debt in Virginia could have an entirely different value in New England. Moreover, the currencies used in all the colonies were often quickly devalued, which created further issues with trade. To make matters even more complicated, while the colonies mostly used paper money, Europe used silver or gold coins. Thus, trading both among colonies and between colonies and Europe often resulted in frustration.

Stamp Act

In colonial America, paper was extremely important. The colonists used paper for a variety of things: receipts to document the sale of goods, books, graduation diplomas, newspapers, playing cards, and many other items.

Daughters of Liberty

In the 1760s and 1770s, American colonists were angry about taxes passed by the British Parliament, because the colonists had no representatives in Parliament. To show their anger about these taxes, many colonists boycotted the taxed goods. The Daughters of Liberty was the name used for groups of women who supported the boycotts and found or made substitutes for British goods. Groups known as the Sons of Liberty also formed at this time to protest the British taxes.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin is among the most famous of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He played a key role in the Revolutionary War. Franklin was an ardent believer in the need for the colonies to unite against British rule. In May of 1754, he printed what is thought to be the first American political cartoon in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette.

"No taxation without representation"

"No taxation without representation" was a phrase used by American colonists who opposed British tax policies in the 1760s and 1770s. These colonists believed that because they were not represented in Parliament, they did not have to pay British taxes. They said that only locally elected legislatures had the right to tax them.

boycott

A boycott is a means to protest unfair practices. When a group or a nation engages in a boycott, they refuse to purchase, sell, or use goods and services provided by those regarded as behaving unfairly. The group or nation may also try to influence others to join the boycott and to stop doing business with or aiding the offending party.

monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which a single person, called a monarch, functions as the head of state. A person becomes the monarch through heredity. Succession usually passes from father to son. If there is no son to become the monarch, either the daughter's husband rules or, in rare cases, a daughter becomes the ruler.

representative government

A representative government is a form of government in which people elect leaders, called representatives, to stand in for them. The U.S. government is a representative government, also known as a representative democracy. This means that voters elect people to represent them in each of the branches of government. The elected officials are the representatives who create laws and policies that reflect the best interests of the people they represent. The representatives are accountable to those people. A representative democracy is different from a direct democracy, in which the people themselves make decisions and vote on laws for their society.

import duty

An import duty is a tax on goods that are being brought into a country. Import duties are used to raise revenue or protect industries in the nation that is collecting the tax. Import duties raise the price of foreign goods, making people more likely to buy domestic goods. A domestic good is something that is made locally, in the country that is charging the import duty on foreign goods. Thus import duties protect local industries and are sometimes called protective tariffs.

Pontiac's Rebellion

By the 1700s, tensions between British colonists and Native Americans were growing rapidly. As the colonists pushed further west, they built forts to secure themselves. However, these forts did not really spare the colonists the tensions of expanding into Native American territories. Clashes were virtually inevitable.

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first of several people who died in the event that became known as the Boston Massacre. He is considered the first American martyr of the American Revolution. Not much is known about Attucks's early life, although he was probably born into slavery in 1723 and escaped sometime before 1750. He was most likely a sailor on whaling ships and traveled in and out of Boston Harbor.

Declaratory Act

In 1765 British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which taxed all printed material in the colonies. The colonists resisted. Eventually, with the help of Benjamin Franklin, the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766. Members of the British Parliament worried that the repeal would signal a loss of control over the colonies. They quickly passed the Declaratory Act as a means to reassert England's power.

Boston Tea Party

In the early 1760s, the British government began taxing the colonists' imports of products such as sugar, coffee, and paper. Many colonists felt the taxes were unfair because the English Bill of Rights stated that citizens could not be taxed without having their own representatives in the British Parliament. The colonists argued that there should be no taxation without representation.

John Hancock

John Hancock, born in 1737, was a leader of the colonists before and during the American Revolution. He was also the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Raised near Boston, Hancock became well known for his opposition to British policies, such as taxation without representation. British officials knew him as a leader of the rebel movement and issued orders to arrest him and Samuel Adams in April 1775. Searching for these two men, British troops marched to Lexington and Concord on April 18, which led to the Battles of Lexington and Concord the next day.

Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, tensions were high in Boston, Massachusetts. British soldiers stood guard at the Custom House, where the British stored tax money. A group of colonists, angry at the soldiers and the taxes they had to pay, began shouting and throwing rocks at the soldiers. One of the rocks hit a soldier, and a shot rang out. The soldiers panicked and began firing at the colonists. When the smoke settled, five colonists were dead and seven were wounded. Samuel Adams, a colonial leader, wrote an exaggerated account of the event. He called it the Boston Massacre. It fueled anti-British feelings in the colonies and led to the American Revolution.

Albany Plan

The Albany Plan was a proposal for a union of the colonies that was drawn up at the Albany Congress in 1754. The congress was made up of representatives from all 13 colonies and about 150 members of the Iroquois League. The Albany Congress was called initially to discuss what to do about hostile French troops and their Native American allies in the Ohio River Valley. Representatives attempted to convince the Iroquois to help the British fight the French.

Intolerable Acts

The Boston Tea Party occurred in late 1773. Upset with high taxes on tea, colonists dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor—all of it belonging to the British East India Company. This move by the colonists outraged Parliament, which then passed a series of acts known in England as the Coercive Acts. However, outraged colonists unofficially called them the Intolerable Acts. The intent of these acts was to quell resistance by the colonies. Instead, the acts served to fuel resistance to British rule and propelled the colonies toward independence.

Committees of Correspondence

The Committees of Correspondence were groups set up in all 13 American colonies in the early 1770s. The purpose of these groups was to share information and to cooperate, mainly on issues related to British taxation and colonial protests against the taxes. Samuel Adams organized the first committee in 1772 in Boston, which was the center of many of the protests. Within only a few months of this first committee's formation, 80 others had formed in Massachusetts alone. Soon committees were formed in all of the other colonies. Many of the leading Patriots of the time were members in these committees. For example, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were both members of a committee in Virginia, and Paul Revere was a rider for the Boston Committee. The committees were involved in summoning colonial leaders to the First Continental Congress in September 1774. When war broke out, they took on some of the work of local governments.

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

The Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a statement issued by colonial representatives at the Stamp Act Congress. This congress was held in October 1765 in response to the Stamp Act, which had been passed earlier that year. The Stamp Act was a tax on newspapers and other official documents, all of which had to have an official stamp on them.

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress, held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774, was a meeting of political leaders in the colonies. It was held in response to the colonists anger at British policies, especially the Intolerable Acts. Representatives from all 13 colonies except Georgia attended the First Continental Congress.

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was a conflict that took place between Great Britain and France. It was part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years' War. British colonists fought on the side of Great Britain, and Native Americans fought alongside the French, which is how the war got its name. Some historians claim, however, that there were some Native Americans on the side of the British and some colonists on the side of the French.

Quartering Act

The Quartering Act, passed in 1765, is considered one of the Intolerable Acts. These were a series of acts passed by the British Parliament that caused an increase in tension between the colonists and Britain. They eventually led to the Declaration of Independence.

Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress was a meeting of political leaders that began in Philadelphia in May 1775. The meeting was held in response to the growing tensions between the colonies and Great Britain. The group met less than a month after the Battles of Lexington and Concord had taken place, and it took steps to prepare for a larger war.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were independent groups of American colonists that formed in the summer of 1765 to protest British tax policies. The first such organization, named the Loyal Nine, formed in Boston in response to the Stamp Act, which was a 1765 British tax on official paper and documents. But additional groups formed throughout the colonies as more people became angry about Britain's tax policies.

Sugar Act

The Sugar Act, part of the Navigation Acts, was a modified version of the Molasses Act. The Sugar Act reduced the rate of taxation on molasses, a move that should have pleased the colonists, but it also increased taxation on other goods. In particular, the Sugar Act taxed sugar, coffee, wine, and some textiles. It also regulated the trade of lumber and some metals. The Sugar Act affected where and how the colonists traded goods. The French West Indies, which had at one time seen a lot of lumber imported from the colonies, saw a sharp decline in trade with the colonies. This act caused disruption in the already fragile economy of the colonies. It helped set the stage for revolution.

Tea Act

The Tea Act, passed by Parliament in 1773, ignited a crisis that had been brewing in the American colonies for years. In 1767, seeking more control over the colonies, British Parliament passed a series of laws called the Townshend Acts. These acts put a tax on many popular imports to America, such as glass, lead, paper, and tea. The colonists resisted. They felt they should not pay taxes to a distant government in which they had no representation. In 1770, they forced the British government to repeal the Townshend Acts. All that remained was the tax on tea. Rather than pay any tax to Great Britain, many colonists bought tea smuggled in from other countries.

legislature

The legislative branch of a government is the branch that makes laws. In the U.S. federal government, the legislative branch is called Congress and is made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 100 members, with 2 senators coming from each state. The House of Representatives has 435 members. Each state has a different number of representatives, based on the size of its population.

Continental Congress

There were two Continental Congresses. The first met before the American Revolutionary War, and the second met during the war. Each congress was made up of delegates from the British colonies, although Georgia did not participate in the first congress. Each congress elected a president, and each colony was given a single vote regardless of its size. Both congresses functioned as governing bodies for the emerging nation.

Common Sense

Thomas Paine was born and raised in England. Paine met Benjamin Franklin while in London, and Franklin advised him that he would find prosperity in America. So, Paine moved to Philadelphia in 1774. Living in Philadelphia made Paine aware of the challenges faced by the colonists, and he soon strongly believed that the colonies should be independent of each other and free from British rule.