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The American Revolution

The American Revolution was a conflict between 13

British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North

America and their parent country, Great Britain. The

war resulted in the colonies becoming a separate

nation, the United Stated of America. It is also known

as the American War of Independence.

The Seven Years' War left Great Britain with the

expensive responsibility of administering newly

acquired territory in North America. The British

Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to raise

revenue

to pay a share of the empire's defense costs. The

Stamp Act required the colonists to use specially

stamped

paper for all official documents, newspapers, and

pamphlets. It provoked almost unanimous opposition

among the colonists, who regarded it as a violation of

the right of English subjects not to be taxed without

representation. Riots broke out in colonial cities,

and American merchants pledged not to buy British

goods.

Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766,

yielding to the demands of economically depressed

British merchants.

In 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which

imposed taxes on lead, glass, tea, paint, and

paper imported by Americans from Britain. Once again

the colonists protested vigorously and boycotted

British goods. In 1770 a riot occurred between British

troops and citizens of Boston (then in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony). The troops fired, killing

five people in the so-called Boston Massacre.

Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts but retained

the tax on tea. In 1773 Parliament passed the

Tea Act, reducing the tax on tea in an attempt to

rescue the English East India Company from bankruptcy.

The colonists refused to buy English tea and would not

permit British ships to unload it in Philadelphia and

New York City. In Boston, in the so-called Boston Tea

Party, a group of citizens dumped cargoes of tea

from British ships into Boston Harbor. In retaliation,

Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in...