Explanation:
1. The Stamp Act (March 1765)
Sheet of penny revenue stamps printed by Britain for the American colonies, after the Stamp Act of 1765.
To recoup some of the massive debt left over from the war with France, Parliament passed laws such as the Stamp Act, which for the first time taxed a wide range of transactions in the colonies.
âUp until then, each colony had its own government which decided which taxes they would have, and collected them,â explains Willard Sterne Randall, a professor emeritus of history at Champlain College and author of numerous works on early American history, including Unshackling America: How the War of 1812 Truly Ended the American Revolution. âThey felt that theyâd spent a lot of blood and treasure to protect the colonists from the Indians, and so they should pay their share.â
The colonists didnât see it that way. They resented not only having to buy goods from the British but pay tax on them as well. âThe tax never got collected, because there were riots all over the pace,â Randall says. Ultimately, Benjamin Franklin convinced the British to rescind it, but that only made things worse. âThat made the Americans think they could push back against anything the British wanted,â Randall says.
2. The Townshend Acts (June-July 1767)
An American colonist reads with concern the royal proclamation of a tax on tea in the colonies as a British soldier stands nearby with rifle and bayonet, Boston, 1767. The tax on tea was one of the clauses of the Townshend Acts.
Parliament again tried to assert its authority by passing legislation to tax goods that the Americans imported from Great Britain. The Crown established a board of customs commissioners to stop smuggling and corruption among local officials in the colonies, who were often in on the illicit trade.
Americans struck back by organizing a boycott of the British goods that were subject to taxation, and began harassing the British customs commissioners. In an effort to quell the resistance, the British sent troops to occupy Boston, which only deepened the ill feeling.
3. The Boston Massacre (March 1770)
A print of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere, 1770.
Simmering tensions between the British occupiers and Boston residents boiled over one late afternoon, when a disagreement between an apprentice wigmaker and a British soldier led to a crowd of 200 colonists surrounding seven British troops. When the Americans began taunting the British and throwing things at them, the soldiers apparently lost their cool and began firing into the crowd.
As the smoke cleared, three menâincluding an African American sailor named Crispus Attucksâwere dead, and two others were mortally wounded. The massacre became a useful propaganda tool for the colonists, especially after Paul Revere distributed an engraving that misleadingly depicted the British as the aggressors.
(hope this helps can i plz have brainlist :D hehe)
