2. The American Revolution
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1765 – 1783
The Stamp Act, an edict putting harsh taxes on the colonies as a method of paying off the expenditures of the Seven Years’ War with France, escalating tensions between the British and their 13 American colonies in 1765. As demonstrators expressed their dissatisfaction with the higher levies, pockets of violence erupted. The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773, when a group of activists called as the Sons of Liberty dropped 342 containers of tea into Boston Harbor to oppose tea taxes.
Twelve representatives from each of the original 13 colonies met in 1774 to address the issue, founding the Continental Congress, which acted as the colonies’ ruling authority during the transition to independence. They did not seek freedom directly at first, but they did oppose new taxes in the British Parliament.
