The Problem of Empire Timeline

The war lasted nine years. The war started because there was a territorial issue whether the upper Ohio River Valley was part of the British Empire. The French and Indians were allies in this war. They were fighting the British and the colonists.

Glenville won parliamentary approval for the Sugar Act. It was to replace the Molasses Act. The Sugar Act made it tougher for merchants to smuggle molasses that they had made their money off of. Grenville made the price 3 pence per gallon. New England merchants, for example John Hancock, made his money smuggling French molasses.

This allowed British soldiers to come into colonists homes and demand to be taken care of. This angered colonists. The patriots responded by in New York the assembly refused to fund until 1767

The Stamp Act of 1765 sparked the great imperial crisis. The new law was made to cover part of the cost of keeping British troops in America. Benjamin Franklin proposed the idea, "If you chuse to tax us give us Members in your Legislature, and let us be one People."

The American colonists rebelled against the British's taxes. England had between 1,200 and 2,000 troops stationed in Boston for a year in a half. March 5, 1770 nine British redcoats fired into the crowd and killed five people. The Boston Radical Whigs labeled the event a massacre.

The act provide financial relief for the East India company. The Tea Act gave the company a government loan, and to get more revenue canceled importing tea to Ireland and the American colonies. This angered American merchants.

Team was being delivered, and Royal Governor Hutchinson was determined to get the tea and collect the tax. Artisans and Laborers disguised themselves as Indians and got on three ships. The Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver. They broke open 342 chests of tea and threw them into the harbor.

Parliament passed four Coercive Acts to force Massachusetts to pay for the tea they wasted and submit to authority. The colonists said the measures were intolerable and wanted support for Massachusetts.

Thomas Paine published Common Sense. It was a call for independence and a republican form of government. Paine served as an official in England but moved to Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush was one of the patriots that shared his ideas.

Patriot leaders gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. As Congress opened, 3,000 British troops attacked American fortifications on Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill. John Adams told Congress to rise to the "defense of American liberty" by creating a continental army. This added fuel to the revolution.