THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR VS

COMPETING EMPIRES France and England were competing for land in the Americas The French claimed the land between Lake Eerie and the Ohio River This worried the colonists in Virginia The governor of Virginia sent George Washington with his militia to kick out the French Washington built a fort, Fort Necessity, and tried to fight back the French Washington eventually surrendered to the French

THE ALBANY CONGRESS The British government expected war to break out, so they had the colonial leaders meet The British were hoping that the colonies would work together to take care of the French The Iroquois tribe was also invited and ask to form an alliance The Iroquois did not want to ally up with the colonists because they believed that the French would win the war Benjamin Franklin believed that the colonies could only win if they worked together He printed a picture in his newspaper warning the colonists to “Join, or Die.”

ALBANY CONGRESS CONT. Franklin called for all the colonies to work together The colonial governments rejected his plan for a unified assault on the French The colonies wanted to have their own armies and collect their own taxes

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

BRITISH TURN THE TIDE In 1757, Britain got a new prime minister, William Pitt, and along with him new generals for the army They recaptured For Duquesne and renamed it Fort Pitt This is now the city of Pittsburgh The new victories of the British eventually led to the Iroquois siding with the British With their new ally, the British set their eyes to Quebec, a key French city

THE BATTLE FOR QUEBEC

THE FRENCH LOSE THE WAR France and Britain sign the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to end the war France lost almost all of its North American possessions France ceded, or surrendered, French Canada to Britain Britain also gained all of Frances territory east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans Britain received Spanish Florida New Orleans, along with all of French territory west of the Mississippi went to Spain The Native Americans also lost their land because the British began to move in

EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR France loses its North American possessions Britain is left with a large debt Colonists develop a sense of unity Colonists begin settling in the Ohio River valley Native Americans resist colonists settling in the Ohio River valley

THE COLONISTS RESIST TIGHTER CONTROL

CONFLICTS WITH THE NATIVE AMERICANS Colonists began to spread into the newly acquired Ohio River valley Pontiac’s War Leader of the Ottawa tribe, Pontiac, allied many tribes together to push back against the colonists The Indians attacked many British Forts The colonists retaliated by slaughtering any Indian Pontiac faced a major defeat near Fort Pitt in 1764 The conflict between colonists and Indians forced the British government to sign the Proclamation of 1763 This document said that colonists could not move west of the Appalachian Mountains

BRITISH RULE LEADS TO CONFLICT The colonists began to identify themselves with one another and not Britain Britain was left in debt because of the French and Indian war The British government believed that the colonists should pay for some of the debt The Sugar Act This put an import tax on many products, including molasses Smugglers were punished more severely The Quartering Act This required colonists to house and feed British soldiers

THE STAMP ACT This act, passed by parliament in 1765, required colonists to buy a special tax stamp for all kinds of products and activities Newspapers, wills, licenses, insurance policies, land contracts, land titles, contracts, and many other documents Protests spread all over the colonies The House of Burgesses said that only they could tax Virginia Others in Boston and New York called for a boycott on British goods Nine colonies met that year to send a petition to the king and Parliament This demanded the repeal of the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act

SUCCESS!... SORT OF Due to the protests, Parliament did repeal the Stamp Act However, they also passed the Declaratory Act at the same time This act said that Parliament had total authority over the colonies

PROTESTS SPREAD Parliament passed the Townshend Acts in 1767 These said that Britain would no longer tax products and activities within the colonies, just products imported into the colonies To do this, they needed writs of assistance, which gave Britain the right to search for anything without saying what they were searching for This was an attempt to weaken the colonies’ unity

EFFECTS OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE Samuel Adams and his cousin John Adams created the Committee of Correspondence This was set up to keep the colonists informed about what the British were doing to the colonists They would write letters and pamphlets to inform the people around the colonies Many other committees were created to achieve these same goals These committees helped unite the colonists with a common goal

INTOLERABLE ACTS These were laws passed after the Boston Tea Party to punish Boston Four new laws Strengthened the Quartering Acts Closed the Port of Boston Abolished the upper house of Massachusetts Legislature This acts crippled the Boston economy and angered the rest of the colonists

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS Representatives from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia They decided that only the colonies should be able to tax the colonists Developed a sense of solidarity They also decided to start building up a militia

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD Patriot weapons were being stored in Concord, a town 20 miles out of Boston The British heard about this stockpile and went to confiscate Paul Revere was in charge of riding through the country side to warn nearby town the the British were coming Colonists in the town of Lexington tried to stop the British advance

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD Somebody fired shots “The shot heard around the world” This was the first shots of the American Revolution The British advanced to Concord where a bigger battle took place Luckily the patriots did move their stockpile of weapons before the British arrival