A New Nation
1750-1789
New Policies
Britain mostly followed policy of
salutary neglect
1651 – Navigation Act
• Colonial goods could only be shipped on
British ships
1733 – Molasses Act
• Tax on sugar and molasses
The French and Indian War
Britain and France were fighting over
areas in present day Canada
• British lost many battles early on
Native Americans backed the French
• 1758 – Britain began giving aid to France’s
enemies in Europe
France had to split its forces
Treaty of Paris, 1763
• Great Britain gained Canada and Florida
Knocked the French out of North America
Control and Protest
Britain had to cope with war debt
Proclamation of 1763
•Colonists could not settle west of the
Appalachian Mountains
1764 – Sugar Act
•Cut rates of molasses act, but more
strictly enforced
Control and Protest
1765 – Stamp Act passed
• Affected everyone
• Colonists boycotted British goods
1767 –
Townshend Acts
• Import duties on
tea, paper,
glass, and paint
Repealed in
1770, except tax
on tea
American Resistance
1765 – House of Burgesses
met to consider Stamp
Act
• Virginia Resolution – protest
Parliament’s action
• First real cooperation among
colonies
Sons and Daughters of
Liberty
• Ensured the continuance of
the boycott
Boston Massacre – 1770
• British Soldiers killed five
colonists
The Boston Tea Party
1773 – British Parliament granted a
British company sole control of tea
trade
Sam Adams and a group ensured no
tea would make it ashore
•Boarded ship and heaved 342 chests in
the Boston harbor
Britain passed the Coercive Acts
•Intolerable Acts
The Final Break
First Continental Congress
• September 1774
Stop trade with Britain until acts were repealed
Minutemen attacked British soldiers
near Lexington
Battle of Bunker Hill – June 1775
• American troops managed to hold off
British
Second Continental Congress
1775 met in Philadelphia
Voted to continue war that had ensued in
Lexington
Chose George Washington as Commander in
Chief
Revolution had
technically
begun