AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1773 - 1783

BOSTON TEA PARTY - 1773• In 1773 British introduced a TEA ACT that banned Americans

from buying tea from any other source except the British East India Company.

• The Americans saw this as yet another means of taxing them without representation.

• Angry and frustrated at a new tax on tea, Americans, disguised as Mohawk Native Americans, boarded three British ships and dumped 342 whole crates of British tea into sea on December 16, 1773

• The 342 containers totaled 90,000 pounds of tea! In today's money that would be around a million dollars in tea.

• Similar incidents occurred in other states like New York in the next few months, and British tea was eventually boycotted by Americans

• The British responded with a series of new laws.

• These laws banned all town meetings.

• It closed the Boston port until the price of the dumped tea was recovered.

• It moved the capital of Massachusetts from Boston to Salem.

• This further angered the Americans who called these laws the ‘INTOLERABLE ACTS’.

• In September 56 delegates from 12 colonies met: FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS – they wanted war with the British

INTOLERABLE ACTS - 1774

• In 1775 the British troops occupied Boston and began to march to Concord because it was an arms depot. This meant that the Americans had stockpiled weapons there.

• A patriot by the name PAUL REVERE rode to warn the Americans that British were coming!

• By the time the Redcoats got to Concord, the Americans were waiting for them in force. The weapons depot was saved, and the British were forced to retreat.

• This was the beginning of the American War of Independence.

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON & CONCORD - 1775

• In 1776 the SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS met and decided that they no longer want to be under the British rule.

• So Thomas Jefferson drafted a document to the British King George III declaring the 13 American Colonies independent from Great Britain.

• This was placed in effect on 4th July 1776.

• Important document because it stated the RIGHTS OF MAN:

That all men are created equal

That all men have some rights given to them by God

That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 1776

• The British responded with heavy artillery attempting to capture New York.

• Americans suffered a drawback but France intervened giving them supplies and money.

• Americans defeated the British General in Saratoga and captured his army.

• Battles continued in South but with combine weight of French and American soldiers, British had no chance.

• On October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army to American General George Washington.

BATTLE OF SARATOGA - 1777

The Treaty of Paris and the Independence of America

• Following the defeat of Lord Cornwallis on October, 19, 1781 by American General George Washington, negotiations between America and Britain began.

• The negotiations resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which granted America self rule.

• America had won its war of independence.