Victory in the Seven Years' War left Britain with a large empire in North America but also a large debt, leading the British government to try to shift some of the financial burden to the colonies through new taxes like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. This exacerbated tensions between the colonies and Britain by reinforcing American political identity and exposing irreconcilable differences over political principles of taxation and representation, laying the groundwork for the American Revolution.

3. Victory in the Seven Years’ War made Britain the master of a vastly enlarged imperial domain in
North America.
But victory – including the subsequent need to garrison 10,000 troops along the sprawling American
frontier – was painfully costly. The London govt. wanted the colonists to shoulder some of the
financial burden. This British colonial policy reinforced an emerging sense of American political
identity and helped to precipitate the American Revolution.
The eventual conflict was by no means inevitable. The commercial, military, and cultural bonds
between the two were powerful. The truth is that Americans were reluctant revolutionaries.
Until late in the day, they sought only to claim the “rights of Englishmen,” not to separate from
the mother country.
What began as a squabble about economic policies soon exposed irreconcilable differences over
cherished political principles.

5. THE DEEP ROOTS of REVOLUTION
In a broad sense, America was a
revolutionary force from the day of its
discovery. England’s colonies were
settled largely by emigrants who were
malcontents in spirit. For one reason or
another, they did not fit into Old War
society. Pioneer life bred independent
thought and the privileges of self-govt.
had been established.
Two ideas, in particular, had taken root
in the minds of the American colonial
elite by the 1750’s:
1.Republicanism – opposition to
hierarchical and authoritarian
institutions, such as aristocracy &
monarchy.
Distance weakens authority; great distance weakens
2.“Radical Whigs” – British political authority greatly. So it came as an especially jolting
political commentators widely read shock when Britain after 1763 tried to enclose its
by colonists. They feared the American colonists more snugly in its grip.
threat to liberty posed by the
arbitrary power of the king & his
ministers relative to elected
members of parliament.

6. Benjamin Franklin played many roles in colonial America. In 1767, he commissioned the
cartoon shown below to illustrate the importance of the North American colonies to the
British Empire. Was his purpose to encourage independence or reconciliation? To
whom is his cartoon principally addressed?

7. MERCANTILISM & COLONIAL GRIEVANCES
Britain created many of its upcoming problems through its “absentmindedness” in establishing and
administering its colonies.
Mercantile Theory:
1. The theory shaped & justified British exploitation of the American colonies
(centralized power – political and economic)
2. Lay behind the policies of all the colonizing powers from the 16th-18th centuries
3. Meant to achieve economic and military self-sufficiency by exporting more than they
imported (keep gold & silver in Britain)
4. The colonies existed only to help the Mother country prosper

8. From time to time, Parliament passed laws to regulate the mercantilist system. The
first of these, the Navigation Law of 1650, was aimed at rival Dutch shippers trying to
elbow their way into the American carrying trade. What did the law require of the
colonist traders?

9. British policy also inflicted a currency shortage on the colonies – explain how.
Financial need forced the colonies to print their own money, which swiftly depreciated.
Parliament was forced to prohibit colonial legislatures from printing paper currency
and from passing bankruptcy laws.
The British crown also reserved the right to nullify any legislation passed by the
colonial assemblies if such laws undermined the mercantile system.

10. Americans grumbled that their welfare was being sacrificed for the well-being of
British commercial interests. The colonists found a powerful ally against mercantilism
in famed economist Adam Smith.

11. THE MERITS & MENACES of MERCANTILISM

14. THE STAMP TAX UPROAR
Victory-flushed Britain emerged from the Seven Years’ War holding one of the biggest
empires in the world – and also, the biggest debt, some 140 million pounds, about half of
which had been incurred defending the American colonies. To justify and service that
debt to the British people, British officials moved to shift a portion of the financial
burden to the colonies.
Prime Minister George Grenville first aroused the
resentment of the colonists in 1763 by ordering the British
navy to begin strictly enforcing the Navigation Laws.
He also secured from Parliament the so-called Sugar Act of
1764, the first law passed for raising tax revenue in the
colonies for the crown.

15. After bitter protests from the colonists, the duties were lowered substantially, and
the agitation died down. But resentment was kept burning by the Quartering Act of
1765.

16. Also in 1765, Grenville imposed the most odious measure of all: a stamp tax, to raise
revenues to support the new military force. The Stamp Act mandated the use of
stamped paper or the affixing of stamps, certifying payment of the tax. What types
of items were taxable?

17. Grenville regarded all of these measures as reasonable and just. He was simply asking
the Americans to pay a fair share of the costs for their own defense, through taxes
that were already familiar in Britain (far heavier in Britain).
Americans were angry with Grenville’s “fiscal aggression,” which struck as much at local
liberties as economic ones. Why was a British army needed at all in the colonies? They
lashed back violently and angry throats raised the cry, “No taxation without
representation.” Why was this ironic?

18. The Americans made a distinction between “legislation” and “taxation.” They conceded
the right of Parliament to legislate about matters that affected the entire empire,
including the regulation of trade. But they denied the right of Parliament, in which no
Americans were seated, to impose taxes on Americans.
Grenville dismissed these American protests as “technicalities.” The power of Parliament
was supreme and undivided, and in any case, the Americans were represented in
Parliament based on the theory of virtual representation. Every member of Parliament
represented all British subjects.
Americans scoffed at the notion of virtual representation. And
truthfully, they did not really want direct representation in
Parliament – why?
Thus, the London govt. and the Americans could not reconcile
the distinction between “legislative” authority and “taxing”
authority.
This forced Americans to deny the authority of Parliament
altogether and to begin considering their own political
independence.

19. PARLIAMENT FORCED to
REPEAL the STAMP ACT
Colonial outcries against the hated stamp tax took various forms. The most
conspicuous assemblage was the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, which brought to New
York City delegates from nine colonies. The members drew up a statement of their
rights and grievances and implored the king and Parliament to repeal the measure.
The Stamp Act Congress, which was
largely ignored in England, made little
splash at the time in America.
The greatest achievement was the
bringing together of leaders from
different and sometimes rival colonies.

20. More effective than the congress was the widespread adoption of non-importation
agreements against British goods, especially textiles. The boycott was surprisingly
effective and it was yet another step toward colonial union.

22. THE TOWNSHEND TEA TAX
AND THE BOSTON “MASSACRE”
Following Grenville was Charles Townshend, who persuaded Parliament in 1767 to pass the Townshend
Acts. The most important of these new regulations was a light import duty on glass, white lead,
paper, paint, and tea. Townshend justified these duties by distinguishing between internal and
external taxes.
Flushed with their recent victory over the stamp
tax, the colonists were in a rebellious mood,
especially over the tea tax, for an estimated 1
million people drank tea daily.
The Townshend revenues were earmarked to pay
for the salaries of the royal governors and
judges in America.
Nonimportation agreements were quickly revived,
but they proved less effective than in the past –
why?

23. British officials, faced with a
breakdown of law and order, landed
two regiments of troops in Boston in
1768, and the troops did not mix
well with the colonial population.
A clash was inevitable, for the
colonists resented the presence of
these red-coat “ruffians.”

26. THE SEDITIOUS COMMITTEES
OF CORRESPONDENCE
By 1770 King George III, then only 32 years old, was strenuously attempting to assert
the power of the British monarchy. Describe his personal attributes.
The ill-timed Townshend Acts had failed to produce
revenue, though they did produce near rebellion. Lord
North, bowing to various pressures, finally persuaded
Parliament to repeal the Townshend revenue duties.
But the three-pence toll on tea, the tax the colonists
found most offensive, was retained to keep alive the
principle of parliamentary taxation.

27. Discontent in America continued to be fanned by numerous incidents, including the
redoubled efforts of the British officials to enforce the Navigation Laws. Resistance
was kindled by a master propagandist and engineer of rebellion, Samuel Adams of
Boston. He was ultra-sensitive to infractions of colonial rights. He appealed to the
“trained mob.”
Adams’s contribution was to organize in Massachusetts the local committees of
correspondence. Their chief function was to spread the spirit of resistance by
interchanging letters and keeping alive opposition to British policy. Inter-colonial
committees of correspondence were the next logical step, and they evolved directly
into the first American congresses.

29. Once more the colonists rose up to defy the
London govt. No tea ever reached consignees
in Philadelphia & New York. The ships
returned to England to avoid armed conflict.
In Annapolis & Charleston, local merchants
refused delivery under duress.
Only in Boston did a British official
stubbornly refused to be cowed. Mass. Gov.
Thomas Hutchinson refused to back down. He
did not like the tea tax, but he strongly
believed the colonists had no right to flout
the law.

32. By a fateful coincidence, the “Intolerable Acts” were accompanied in 1774 by the
Quebec Act. It was British policy for administering French subjects in Canada. The
French were guaranteed their Catholic religion, and they were permitted to retain
many of their old customs and traditions. And it extended the boundary of Quebec all
the way to the Ohio River.
Explain why American colonists viewed the Quebec Act as especially noxious and
dangerous to their future welfare. From the British standpoint, why was this
shrewd legislation?

33. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS and
BLOODSHED
American dissenters responded sympathetically to the plight of Massachusetts by
sending food to Boston, the stricken city. Most memorable of the responses to the
“Intolerable Acts” was the summoning of a Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia.
Twelve of the thirteen colonies were represented.
What was its purpose? What did the delegates
debate?
What symbolic actions came out of this Congress?

34. The fateful drift toward war continued. Parliament rejected the Congress’s petitions. In America,
muskets were gathered and men began to drill openly. In April 1775 the British commander in
Boston sent a detachment of troops to nearby Lexington and Concord to seize stores of colonial
munitions and to arrest “rebel” ringleaders, Sam Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington the
colonial “Minute Men” refused to disperse fast enough and shots were fired, killing 8 Americans.
At Concord, the British were forced to retreat by the Americans, suffering approx.
300 casualties. The British got a taste of the “unconventional” warfare that the
Americans would employ. Britain now had a war on its hands.

36. IMPERIAL STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

37. AMERICAN PLUSES & MINUSES

38. The cartoon, “The Wise Men of
Gotham and Their Goose,” is from a
London magazine in 1775 after the
Revolutionary War had broken out.
To what audience is it addressed?
What are the cartoonist’s
sympathies in the conflict between
Britain and its American colonies?
To what extent does the British
cartoon of 1775 express sentiments
similar to Franklin’s image of 1767?

39. ROAD TO REVOLUTION QUIZZES
http://www.historyteacher.net/USProjects/USQuizzes/RoadToRevolution1.htm
http://www.historyteacher.net/USProjects/USQuizzes/RoadToRevolution2.htm
http://www.historyteacher.net/USProjects/Quizzes5-6/RoadToRevolution5.htm