The document summarizes the key events and ideological influences that led to American independence from Britain between 1763-1776. It describes the political and economic tensions that arose after the French and Indian War due to new British taxes and laws restricting colonial expansion. This led colonists to organize groups like the Sons of Liberty and engage in protests such as the Boston Tea Party. Defiance escalated into armed conflict at Lexington and Concord, starting the Revolutionary War. Philosophers influential in the growing revolutionary spirit included Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Ideas from Enlightenment thinkers, English radicals, the Bible, and colonial self-governance experience shaped the colonists' belief that they deserved republican rule