The American Revolution

29.3
Bell Work

What is happening in this

cartoon?
What does no taxation
without representation mean?
Key Ideas

Anger at British rule led 13 colonies to declare

independence

The Declaration of Independence reflected Enlightenment

political ideas

The US Constitution created a representative government

that guarantees individual rights
 Colonist have no
British parliament representatives in the
taxed the British parliament
colonies without
approval from
the colonies

Colonist argued that the

British government ignoring
their natural rights
 Boston Massacre
Colonist tried to ask
parliament to change
Some colonist in Boston
its policies but failed
took part in a violent
protests.

On March 5, 1770 British

soldiers sent by parliament
fired into the crowd, killing 5
people
 Boston Tea Party

This protest was

aimed at taxes
Colonist destroyed three
shiploads of British tea in on imported tea.
the Boston harbor.

The British responded by Britain reduced the

closing Boston’s ports and power of the local
sending more troops to the
government.
city.
Yo
ur tu
rn
to
tea
ch
The Revolution Begins Boycott
Will Parliament
take away our
September 1774 representatives met British rights to control
at the First Continental Congress. The goods! our own
Congress asked the British affairs?
government to change its policies.
The Battle of Lexington The British wanted to take
colonial military supplies stored
there. On the way there they
On April 19, 1775 exchanged shots with militia
fighting started when these battles marked the
British troops marched beginning of the American
to the towns of Revolution
Lexington and Concord.
 Wh
y
wit wer
hB e th
riti
sh e col
Ru on
le? ist u
nhap
py
 A government All humans A government that
across the ocean are Equal. values the monarch
should not rule more than the will of
the colones its people doesn’t
make sense.

Britain ignored the demands of the

First continental congress thus
causing a division in colonist.
Some wanting to keep ties with
Britain. Most wanting to break Thomas Paine
away
 The Declaration of Independence

● 1776 Second Continental Congress held.

● After debates it was agreed that independence would be declared.
● July 4, 1776, the congress announced the Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson
“We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,
that they are endowed by
their Creator with Certain
unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness”

The declaration of Independence was mainly written by Thomas Jefferson. The

declaration states Enlightenment idea that all people are born with certain
“unalienable” rights.
The Declaration drew from Enlightenment ideas

Rousseau’s belief that people Locke’s idea that a government's main job is
give governments the power to to support people’s natural rights. When a
rule government does not do so the people have
the right to overthrow it

The Declaration listed ways the British King

had oppressed the colonists. Ex colonists
did not always have the right to trial by jury
 A Surprising Victory
Saratoga convinced the
French that the
Battle of Saratoga was
Americans could defeat
a victory for the
the British. The French
Americans and a turning then formed an Alliance
point in the war. with the colonies

Poorly equipped
colonial soldiers vs. the
most powerful fighting October 17, 1782 American
force and French forces trapped
British troops at Yorktown,
The British surrendered and
the War came to an end.
 After the war the
Americans soon realized
a weak central
government could not
solve the many problems
of the country
 Congress adopted the
Articles of Confederation as
a way to govern the
colonies. The individual
States had more Power
than the central
government.
 The Virginia plan,
May 1787 delegates based representation
from the states meet on a state’s population
to write a
constitution

New Jersey plan all states

would receive the same
number of representatives
in congress.
 What about
the Slaves?

Southern states has more enslaved people than northern states.

They wanted to count slaves as part of the population so they
would have more representatives
The Constitution
What is a
constitution?

The Constitution is like a set

of important rules and
principles that help organize
a government
The Constitution

The constitution made a federal system. This means that the power is
splist between the central government and the local governments. The
delegates wanted to prevent the central government from becoming too
strong.

The constitution divided government powers into 3 parts: executive,

legislative and judicial. The legislative branch consists of the House of
Representatives and the Senate.
 Compromise

House of
Representatives : based Senate: each state has
on each state’s two senators
population
 What about
the Slaves?

Compromise was made. ⅗ of the number of enslaved people

were counted when calculating the number of representatives
for the state
 The constitution includes rules for
amending, or changing the constitution

Today the constitution has 27

amendments.
 The 1st 10 amendments
make up the bill of rights.
Bill of rights outlines basic
rights like freedom of
religion and freedom of the
press