1. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
American Grievances Overview
British attempts to impose new taxes or to prevent further westward settlement provoked protests in the colonies.
Cost of colonial administration and defense
Threat of Western Frontier and Amerindians

2. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
American Grievances – Increased Taxes
The British government tried to raise new revenue from the American colonies through a series of fiscal reforms and new taxes:
E.g. the Sugar Act of 1764 or the Stamp Act of 1765
Colonists respond by organizing boycotts of British goods, staging violent protests, and attacking British officials.

3. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
American Grievances – Slowing Expansion
In the Great Lakes region, there were Amerindian raids on the settled areas of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The Amerindian alliance that carried out these raids was defeated within a year by British armies.

4. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
American Grievances – Slowing Expansion
Fear of more violence led the British to establish a western limit for settlement in the Proclamation of 1763.
This has the effect of slowing down settlement of the regions north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi in the Quebec Act of 1774.

5. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
What actions “cause” American Independence
BOSTON MASSACRE (1770)
Relations between the American colonists and the British authorities were further exacerbated by the killing of five civilians in the Boston Massacre (1770)

6. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
What actions “cause” American Revolution
TEA ACT (1773)
British government grants the East India Company a monopoly on the import of tea to the colonies.
Colonists in Boston responded to the monopoly by dumping tea into Boston harbor(Boston Tea Party); the British respond by closing the port of Boston.

7. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
What actions “cause” American Revolution
COLONIAL GOVERNMENT
British governors are deposed and a Continental Congress is established:
printed currency
organized an army

8. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
What actions “cause” American Revolution
PHILISOPHICAL SHIFTS
Ideological support for independence was given by the rhetoric of thousands of street-corner speakers, by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, and in the Declaration of Independence.

9. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
What actions “cause” American Revolution
“THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD”
On April 19, 1775 about 700 British regulars squared off against 250 colonial militia in the town of Lexington, Battle of Lexington and Concord (near Boston)
This was the outbreak of armed conflict between Britain and its colonies…