What events led to the Revolutionary War?
(4 points)
What events led to the Revolutionary War?
(4 points)
1. **Taxation without Representation**: Following the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), Britain was deeply in debt and looked to the colonies for revenue. The Stamp Act (1765) and the Townshend Acts (1767) imposed direct taxes on the colonies without their consent, leading to widespread discontent and the principle of "no taxation without representation."
2. **The Boston Massacre (1770)**: Tensions escalated between British soldiers and colonists, leading to a confrontation in Boston that resulted in the deaths of five colonists. This event fueled anti-British sentiment and was used as a propaganda tool by colonial leaders.
3. **The Boston Tea Party (1773)**: In response to the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, colonists boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped their tea cargo overboard. This act of defiance galvanized colonial resistance against British rule.
4. **Intolerable Acts (1774)**: In retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, the British government passed a series of punitive laws known as the Coercive Acts (referred to by the colonists as the Intolerable Acts). These acts closed Boston Harbor, altered the Massachusetts government, allowed for quartering of troops in civilian homes, and expanded the reach of the Royal Navy's Admiralty Courts. The harshness of these laws united the colonies against what they perceived as an existential threat to their rights and liberties.
These events contributed to the growing sense of American identity and desire for independence, setting the stage for the outbreak of hostilities in 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.