Question

Explain some popular uprisings during the colonial crisis.

Answer 1

1.) The Stamp Act: March 1765

Passed by British Parliament to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies. The act required the colonies to pay a tax, represented by a stamp on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards.

2.) The Townshend Acts: June-July 1767

A series of measures, passed by the British Parliament taxed goods imported to the American colonies. But American colonists who had representation in Parliament saw the acts as an abuse of power.

3.) The Boston Massacre: March 1770

A street fight between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several were killed and this led to campaigns by speech-writers to rouse the ire of citizenship.

4.) The Boston Tea Party: December 1773

A political protest at Griffin Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at the British for imposing taxation without "representation" Dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor.

5. The Coercive Act: March-June 1774

Known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port Act was the first of the Coercive Acts.

6.) Lexington and Concord: April 1775

The battles of Lexington and Concord, the famous "shot heard" round the world; marked the start of the American War of Independence. Politically disastrous for the British, it persuaded many Americans to take arms and support the cause of independence.

7.) British Attacks on Coastal Towns: October (1775-1776)

In Falmouth, where townspeople had to grab their possessions and flee for their lives, Northerners had to face up to "the fear that the British would do whatever they wanted to do to them."

Step-by-step explanation:

These were popular uprisings during the colonial crisis.

Answer 2

When the French and Indian War finally ended in 1763, no British subject on either side of the Atlantic could have foreseen the coming conflicts between the parent country and its North American colonies. Even so, the seeds of these conflicts were planted during, and as a result of, this war. Keep in mind that the French and Indian War (known in Europe as the Seven Years' War) was a global conflict. Even though Great Britian defeated France and its allies, the victory came at great cost. In January 1763, Great Britain's national debt was more than 122 million pounds [the British monetary unit], an enormous sum for the time. Interest on the debt was more than 4.4 million pounds a year. Figuring out how to pay the interest alone absorbed the attention of the King and his ministers.Nor was the problem of the imperial debt the only one facing British leaders in the wake of the Seven Years' War. Maintaining order in America was a significant challenge. Even with Britain's acquisition of Canada from France, the prospects of peaceful relations with the Native America tribes were not good. As a result, the British decided to keep a standing army in America. This decision would lead to a variety of problems with the colonists. In addition, an uprising on the Ohio frontier - Pontiac's Rebellion - led to the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade colonial settlement west of the Allegany Mountains. This, too, would lead to conflicts with land-hungry settlers and land speculators like George Washington (see map above).

British leaders also felt the need to tighten control over their empire. To be sure, laws regulating imperial trade and navigation had been on the books for generations, but American colonists were notorious for evading these regulations. They were even known to have traded with the French during the recently ended war. From the British point of view, it was only right that American colonists should pay their fair share of the costs for their own defense. If additional revenue could also be realized through stricter control of navigation and trade, so much the better. Thus the British began their attempts to reform the imperial system.

In 1764, Parliament enacted the Sugar Act, an attempt to raise revenue in the colonies through a tax on molasses. Although this tax had been on the books since the 1730s, smuggling and laxity of enforcement had blunted its sting. Now, however, the tax was to be enforced. An outcry arose from those affected, and colonists implemented several effective protest measures that centered around boycotting British goods. Then in 1765, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act, which placed taxes on paper, playing cards, and every legal document created in the colonies. Since this tax affected virtually everyone and extended British taxes to domestically produced and consumed goods, the reaction in the colonies was pervasive. The Stamp Act crisis was the first of many that would occur over the next decade and a half.

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