Political Revolutions

United States

American Revolution

• Beginnings of discontent– Mercantilism– Stamp Act

• Direct Tax

– Townshend Acts• Boston Massacre

– Tea Acts– Coercive Acts

• Boston Tea Party

American Revolution

• Mercantilism– An economic system whereby the American

colonists would send raw materials to England where they would be made into finished products and shipped back to the colonies in English ships. The colonists then could only buy these English goods.

Mercantilism

Raw Materials

Finished Products

Could only buy English goods

Triangle Trade

Rum

Enslaved Africans

Sugar and Molasses

American Revolution

• War between France and Great Britain– Left Britain in

tremendous debt• In order to pay debt,

Britain felt that the colonists should pay a large amount of this since the war was fought to protect them

• Started the Stamp Act

American Revolution

• The Stamp Act– A “stamp” was

required on all documents, newspapers, playing cards.

• This was a Direct Tax that went directly to Parliament

American Revolution

• The Stamp Act– Affected merchants,

lawyers, and newspaper people the most. This group of people would confront the British by destroying stamps, threatening tax collectors, and leading boycotts of British goods.

American Revolution

• The Stamp Act– In October 1765, 9 of the 13 colonies met where they

drew up a letter explaining that the only time they had been taxed before was by their own colonial legislature. Since they did not have any representatives in Parliament they felt it was unfair for Britain to tax them.

• In March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but enacted the Declaratory Act that stated that Parliament had the right to make laws for its colonies.

American Revolution

• The Road to Revolution– In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend

Acts, which placed a tax on such goods as paper, glass, and tea. Britain sent the “redcoats” to Boston to see that it was enforced. A crowd of colonists started yelling and throwing rocks at the redcoats. The soldiers fired into the crowd killing five people. This became known as the Boston Massacre.

American Revolution

• The Road to Revolution– In 1767, Parliament passed

the Townshend Acts, which placed a tax on such goods as paper, glass, and tea. Britain sent the “redcoats” to Boston to see that it was enforced. A crowd of colonists started yelling and throwing rocks at the redcoats. The soldiers fired into the crowd killing five people. This became known as the Boston Massacre.

American Revolution

• The Coercive Act was then passed by Parliament. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress where Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry called for the colonies to become independent.

American Revolution

Revolution

- In May 1775 George Washington was named to head the colonial army

- On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was issued. In it Thomas Jefferson wrote that there are certain God-given rights.

American Revolution

• Revolution– Fighting lasted for five

years. The French would join in the fighting in 1778.

– The official Peace Treaty was signed in Paris in 1783

American Revolution

• Three years later the Tea Act was enacted on the colonists. This said that the East India Company were the only people that could sell tea and took this business away from the colonists.– This led to the Boston Tea

Party, where colonists dressed as Indians dumped a cargo of tea in the harbor.