Causes of American Revolution

Quartering Act

Acts of British Parliament requiring local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with housing and food.

Boston Massacre

British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. Conflicts between Britan and the Colonies arose because the British government had been trying to increase control over the colonies and raise taxes at the same time.

Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and colonizer who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that opened the New World for conquest and permanent European colonization of the Americas.

Declaratory Act

Declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain.

Proclamation of 1763

Prohibited American colonists from settling west of Appalachia. Colonists felt that England was ignoring their rights which ultimately led to more conflict.

Actual representation

Refers to the representation in a government by a people that chose that leader. This is common in a democratic republic. Colonist wanted Actual Representation.

French and Indian War

began due to a conflict between England and France over control of the Ohio River Valley. Both sides wanted the valley so they could expand their settlements into the area. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America. Much debt needed to be payed off from the war which led to a lot of disputes in the colonies.

Mercantilism

belief in the benefits of profitable trading; commercialism. The British colonies were moneymakers for the mother country. The British put restrictions on how their colonies spent their money so that they could control their economies. The British even put taxes called duties on imported goods to discourage this practice. This pushed the colonists to buy only British goods, instead of goods from other European countries.

Common Sense

is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.

Ideas of a constitution

limited government. republicanism. checks and balances. federalism. separation of powers. popular sovereignty.

sovereignty

supreme authority within a territory.

Virtual representation

Each member of parliament should act for the good of country. The theory held that the members of Parliament already represented everyone in the British Empire. They did not just represent the people who elected them.

Stamp Act Congress

First gathering of representatives from several American colonies to devise a unified protest against British taxation.

External/Internal Taxes

Internal taxes were the general taxes imposed on items and lands within a nation or colony. These were directed towards the colonists. External taxes were placed on tariffs and exported/ imported goods.

Continental Congress

It served as the government of the 13 American colonies. It was comprised of delegates from the colonies who met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts.

Gaspee Affair

It was a British customs ship, ran aground in Rhode Island and a Sons of Liberty group attacked and set fire to the ship.

Declaration of Independence

It was a It explains to the whole world why the thirteen British colonies were seeking to start their own country. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. It was created by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776.

Tea Act

It was a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government.

Boston Tea Party

It was a political protest against Britain. Colonists dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. The colonists were willing to give up whatever they had to defend their right for independence.

Salutary Neglect

Salutary neglect, policy of the British government from the early to mid-18th century regarding its North American colonies under which trade regulations for the colonies were laxly enforced and imperial supervision of internal colonial affairs was loose as long as the colonies remained loyal to the British government and contributed to the economic profitability of Britain.

Townshend Acts

Taxed the Americans, this time through an import tax on such items as glass, paper, lead, and tea. 5 acts that

Coercive/Intolerable Acts

The Intolerable Acts were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest. There were 5 acts that England placed on Massachusetts: the QUEBEC ACT, a law that recognized the Roman Catholic Church as the established church in Quebec (this one act, the British Crown granted land to the French in Quebec that was clearly desired by the American colonists), Boston Port Act, this act closed the boston harbor and didn't let any shipping or trade go through there, Massachusetts Government Act, abrogated the colony's charter of 1691, reducing it to the level of a crown colony, replacing the elective local council with an appointive one, enhancing the powers of the military governor, Gen. Thomas Gage, and forbidding town meetings without approval, Administration of Justice Act, was aimed at protecting British officials charged with capital offenses during law enforcement by allowing them to go to England or another colony for trial.

Navigation Acts of 1763

The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade. England's American colonies could only export their goods in English ships.

Olive Branch Petition

The Olive Branch Petition was a final attempt by the colonists to avoid going to war with Britain during the American Revolution. It was a document in which the colonists pledged their loyalty to the crown and asserted their rights as British citizens.

Currency Act

The act prohibited the issue of any new bills and the reissue of existing currency. Parliament favored a "hard currency" system based on the pound sterling, but was not inclined to regulate the colonial bills. Rather, they simply abolished them.

Sugar Act

The first tax on the American colonies imposed by the British Parliament. Its purpose was to raise revenue through the colonial customs service and to give tax collectors more power and latitude with respect to executing seizures and enforcing customs law.

Stamp Act

The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. It was a tax to help the British pay for the French and Indian War. The British felt they were well justified in charging this tax because the colonies were receiving the benefit of the British troops and needed to help pay for the expense. Colonists had no say in making tax laws because they did not have representatives in Parliament.

Pontiac's War/Rebellion

Warriors from numerous tribes joined the uprising in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the Ohio Valley. The Native Americans were ultimately unsuccessful in expelling the British from the region. It showed the ability of diverse tribes to come together and form an effective coalition to resist British forces. Pontiac's Rebellion caused the British to seek more peaceful relations with Native Americans and to slow their own expansion into the Ohio Valley region. Partially led to the Proclamation of 1763, which drew a line along the eastern border of the Ohio Valley and forbade colonists from moving westward beyond the line.