Causes of the Revolutionary War

1. Causes of the Revolutionary War Unrest in the Colonies

2. British Government Actions: First Action Against the Colonists-The Proclamation of 1763 • After the French and Indian War ended, British colonists again began to move into lands west of the Appalachian Mts. This upset the Native Americans who had lived on this land for a long time. • To prevent fighting, the British government imposed the Proclamation of 1763, which said that the sources of the Mohawk River and the Hudson River would act as the dividing line between the colonies and Native American territory, and no colonists were to live west of that line. • Those settlers already settled were told to move back east of the mountains.

3. British Government Actions: Second Action Against the Colonists- Stamp Act 1765 • It had cost Great Britain a lot of money to fight the French and Indian War. • The British government thought the colonists should help to replace the money. After all, they reasoned, the British soldiers were protecting the colonists during the war. • So the British government imposed the Stamp Act, to make colonists pay taxes on certain goods.

4. Colonists’ Response: Sons of Liberty 1765 • A group called the Sons of Liberty formed in New York City to stop the Stamp Act. • They were against taxation without representation. • This meant that this group thought it wrong that the colonists could not elect anyone to go to England and oppose unfair tax laws. • The Sons of Liberty convinced many New York merchants not to buy any more goods from England. • Business got so slow, that merchants in England were losing money. They too, wanted an end to the Stamp Act. • The British government ignored their requests.

5. Colonists’ Response: Stamp Act Congress -1765 • Nine of the thirteen colonies send delegates to New York Cityto attend the Stamp Act Congress. • Their goal was to create a document to send to the King of England urging him to end the Stamp Act. • They argued that the colonies had the same rights as the British, and should not be taxed without their consent. • After much arguing, the Stamp Act was repealed (done away with).

6. British Government Actions:Third Action Against the Colonists - The Townshend Acts • In 1767, the British government passed the Townshend Acts, which taxed tea, paint, paper, and glass. • To make sure taxes would be collected from local merchants, the British sent more soldiers to the colonies. • This money collected was used to pay British officers and governors in the colonies. • The colonists are further angered and continue to boycott British goods.

7. British Government Actions: Fourth Action Against the Colonists - Boston Massacre - 1770 • A crowd of jeering Bostonians slinging snowballs gathered around a small group of British soldiers guarding the Boston Customs House. The soldiers became enraged after one of them had been hit, and they fired into the crowd, even though they were under orders not to fire. Five colonists were shot and killed. • The first person who was hit when the British soldiers began firing was an African American sailor named Crispus Attucks. • The event in Boston helped to unite the colonies against Britain. What started as a minor fight became a turning point in the beginnings of the American Revolution.

8. British Government Actions: Fifth Action – Tea Act - 1773 • Gave a British Company exclusive right to sell tea in American colonies. • It charged a three penny per pound import tax on tea arriving in the colonies. • This act caused colonial merchants to loose money.

9. Colonists’ Response: Tea Parties in Boston and New York • In 1773, men from the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawks, and crept toward the harbor in Boston, Massachusetts, where British ships were docked bearing tea. • In protest for tax on tea, they boarded a ship and dumped 342 chests of valuable tea into the harbor, as they proclaimed," Boston Harbor will be a teapot tonight!” • In 1774, Patriots in New York had their own “tea party”, dumping 18 boxes into New York Harbor.

10. Colonists’ Response: The Battle of Lexington and Concord 1775 • In 1775, many colonists joined a colonial militia, a volunteer group of soldiers. • British soldiers found out where the Massachusetts militia had stored weapons in Concord, Mass. And they marched to take them. • The militia quickly gathered nearby at Lexington to stop the British. • As the British began to drive them back, someone fired a shot, which became known a “the shot heard 'round the world”. • The American Revolution had begun: as war fought by the 13 colonies to gain their freedom from Great Britain.

11. Colonists Response: Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys • A militia leader named Ethan Allen and his men called the Green Mountain Boys sneaked into the British Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and took over the fort. • The cannons they captured would help the patriots win other battles.

12. Colonists’ Response: The Declaration of Independence • Even as fighting was breaking out colonial leaders gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 at the Continental Congress to discuss how they should deal with Great Britain. • John Jay a lawmakersfrom New York was in attendance. He was always asked to write many of the letters to the king asking him to stop the fighting. • All agreed that the colonies should become independent, or free from British rule. • Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was asked to write the document.

13. Colonists’ Response: New York Gets the News • On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. • People in New York City heard about it days later when General George Washington brought the official copy to his troops. • That evening. excited patriots, tore down a statue of King George III. • They melted down the metal statue, and made bullets to use against the British.