PRELUDE TO CONFLICT
The causes of the American Revolution have been much discussed by many historians. Generally, they amount to Great Britain's post Seven Years War economic and political policies. Below are some of the important events:
1. On 10 February 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain, France, and Spain to end the Seven Years War (known as the French and Indian War in America). To pay for the cost of the War the British government would impose taxes on the American colonists.
2. On 2 October 1763 King George III issued a Royal Proclamation which established a boundary in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide and prohibited settlement beyond it. This upset American colonists who wanted westward expansion.
3. Greater enforcement in 1763 of the Navigation Acts (1651, 1660) that aimed to promote the self - sufficiency of the British Empire by restricting colonial trade to England and decreasing dependence on foreign imported goods.
4. On 5 April 1764 the Sugar Act (officially known as the American Revenue Act, or sometimes the Plantation Act) was passed by the British Parliament. It aimed to raise revenue from the American colonies to pay for the French and Indian War by reduced the existing tax on foreign molasses. It was hoped it would be paid by discouraging smuggling. Strict measures to enforce custom collection were also introduced.
5. On 22 March 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act which imposed a tax on legal documents, newspapers, and even playing cards. It passed by a vote of 205 to 49 in the House of Commons and unanimously in the House of Lords.
6. On 7 October 1765 a gathering of delegates from nine of thirteen American colonies met in New York at Federal Hall to protest the Stamp Act. The delegates, known as the Stamp Act Congress, drafted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances which was sent to King George III and accompanying petitions to both Houses of the British Parliament. It was the first time colonists had come together to oppose a British policy. Among the delegates was American colonial military leader, jurist, and politician Timothy Dwight Ruggles (1711 - 1795) who later was a Loyalist during the American Revolution and afterwards settled near Middleton, Nova Scotia. He refused to sign the declaration sent to King George III as well as the petitions that went to the British Parliament.
7. In June 1767 the British Parliament passed a series of acts, known as the Townshend Acts, which placed new duties on goods imported into the American colonies including glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. They were intended to pay the salaries of colonial governors and judges which would make them independent of colonial legislatures. This led to widespread protests and boycotts in the colonies.
8. On 1 October 1768 British troops landed in Boston to occupy the city and enforce the Townshend Acts. The 14th and 29th Regiments of Foot were the first to land under the command of Major General Thomas Gage. Later the 64th and 65th Regiments were ordered to Boston from Ireland bringing the size of the force to about 3,000 men. This led to clashes between soldiers and locals.
9. On 5 March 1770 British soldiers in Boston fired into a hostile crowd killing five persons and wounding six others in an event that became known as the 'Boston Massacre".
10. In the Spring of 1772 Committees of Correspondence are established throughout the American colonies to coordinate a response to British colonial policy. The first one was established in Boston, meeting in Faneuil Hall, on 2 November 1772 by Samuel Adams with the goal to connect different towns within Massachusetts. Its' success led to creation of similar committees in other towns.
11. On 16 December 1773 in Boston, sixteen members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as indigenous people, boarded the Dartmouth, a merchantman carrying a major shipment of tea, and threw 342 chests of the tea into the harbour. The protest became known as the "Boston Tea Party'.
12. On 25 December 1773, a group of rebels in Philadelphia, forced the merchant ship Polly, which was transporting a shipment of tea, to return to England without unloading its cargo.
13. Between March and June 1774, Britain passes the Coercive Acts, also known in America as the Intolerable Acts, which included the closing of the port of Boston and the requirement that British soldiers be housed in taverns and vacant buildings. The colonies unified and boycotted British goods leading to the First Continental Congress in 1774.
14. On 22 June 1774 King George III went to the House of Lords to give Royal Assent to the Quebec Act. The Act contributed to the American Revolution for several reasons: (a) it expanded the borders of Quebec to the Ohio Valley, an area the American colonies desired for westward expansion and land speculation; (b) it granted freedom of worship and allowed the Roman Catholic Church to collect tithes which angered the predomomiantly Protestant American colonists; (c) it established a Governor and an appointed council instead of an elected representative assembly and American colonists feared Britain might establish similar model on their colonies instead of their democratic self - rule. It was listed in the Declaration of Independence as one of their grievances.
15. From 5 September 1774 to 26 October 1774 the First Continental Congress met at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. It was a meeting of delegates from 12 of 13 of the American colonies. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were represented. Only Georgia did not send delegates. The delegates met to discuss a response to the actions of the British government. On 14 October 1774 the delegates adopted the Declaration and Resolves which outlined objections to the Intolerable Acts and established a plan to boycott British trade.
