Aim: Would you have been an American
Revolutionary?
Period 4 and 5
I Historical Context
A) European nations were competing with each other for:
1. World resources
2. Military strength
3. Political superiority
B) Britain had become a global power
1. Had beaten the Spanish Armada
2. Gained Nova Scotia and Newfoundland from the Treaty of Utrecht that
ended the Wars of the Spanish Succession
3. Gained French Canada at the end of the French and Indian War (1754 –
1763)
4. Added Scotland to the United Kingdom
5. Had colonies on the eastern North American coast
6. Britain practiced the policy of mercantilism; it exploited its colonies for
their natural resources.
II Causes of the American Revolution
A) The Navigation Acts regulated American colonial trade, but was not
strictly enforced. Britain’s national debt nearly doubled after the French
and Indian War. new taxes. Sugar Act 1764, Stamp Act 1765 (on news),
Declaratory Act 1766 (Parliament had complete authority over the American colonies)
Townshend Acts 1767 (Import tax on tea, paint, glass, and lead) rebellions.
1. March 1770 Boston Massacre: British soldiers opened fire on American colonists
who were pelting snowballs death of 5 protesters.
2. Dec 1773 Boston Tea Party: Colonists dressed as Natives and threw tea into the
Boston harbor to protest the Townshend Acts. Led to the cancellation of the
Townshend Acts, but also the passing of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 (Boston harbor
was closed, and town meetings banned).
3. The First Continental Congress Philadelphia 1774 boycott of British goods,
creation of a militia, and appeal to the British Monarch. King George III refused
colonist representation in Parliament (“no taxation without representation”).
B) April 1775 800 British troops marched through Lexington on the way to Concord.
Paul Revere famously cried “The British are coming!” The Battle of Lexington and
Concord was the official beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
C) 1776 the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia vote to declare
independence from Britain.
“Paul Revere did not gain
immediate fame for his April
1775"Midnight Ride." In fact, it
wasn't until Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's 1861 poem,
which greatly embellished
Revere's role, that he became
the folk hero we think of
today.” www.history.com
III The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was the main author, but the Declaration of
Independence was influenced by multiple authors and documents.
The Declaration of Independence Continued…
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of
the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God
entitle them... 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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government…
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately (attributed)." –
Ben Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
The Key Players
King George III Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
III The War Continued…
A) Patriots supported the Revolution. Loyalists supported British
“Redcoats”.
B) The British were winning in the beginning. The tide turned with the
Battle of Bunker Hill 1775. The British “won” the war but had more
casualties. George Washington took command of the American army 2
weeks into the battle.
C) The American colonies formed an alliance with France in February
1778.* France declared war on Britain the next month. Spain declared
war on Britain in 1779 and forced the British out of Louisiana and
Florida.
D) The final battle was at Yorktown in 1781. The British were pinned by
French and American fleets.
E) The Treaty of Paris officially ended the war in 1783.
*France's interest in American independence stemmed
from France's humiliating defeat during the Seven Years
War by England. Benjamin Franklin acted as a diplomat
treaty between France and the colonies in 1777.
IV Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris
officially ended the
American Revolution. It set
many geographic borders,
including U.S. and Canada.
Florida was returned to
Spain. British merchants
had to pay for lost items,
and loyalists had to pay a
penalty.
Some Loyalists were
“tarred and feathered”
and put on ships to
Canada or Britain
HW Questions
Fill in your Period 4 Chart for the American Revolution.
1. What insights does the preamble to the Declaration of
Independence provide as to the causes of the
Revolutionary War? Do you think that the Declaration of
Independence was justified? *Use evidence from the
document!
2. How and why did France help the patriots?
3. What would the consequences have been had America
lost the war?
Key Vocabulary
American Revolutionary War
Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Lexington and Concord
Second Continental Congress
Battle of Yorktown Stamp Act
Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson
Boston Massacre Townshend Acts
Boston Tea Party Treaty of Paris
Constitutional Convention
Declaration of Independence
Declaratory Act
First Continental Congress
French and Indian War
George Washington
Intolerable Acts
John Adams
King George III
Loyalists
Navigation Acts
Patriots
Paul Revere
