American Revolution

Cascade of events that eventually lead

to formation of the New Nation
Colonists & The
The First American
The End of the The Boston Tea Continental Revolutionary Revolutionary
Seven Years War The Stamp Act Party Congress War Ideas

American
Colonies

Taxation in the The Boston The Intolerable American War for The Declaration of Birth of the
American Massacre Acts Independence Independence New Nathion
Colonies
Seven Years' war (from 1756 to 1763)
It was a global conflict that involved most of the European great powers &
was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas & Asia Pacific.
Outcome left a very complicated situation in North America.

Land exchange: France took Louisiana & Britain took

New France.
Despite the victory, the cost of the war had been enormous & Britain's
National Debt had increased & grown too high during the war.
The Seven Years' War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 & the British
government had to borrow up to half of its national budget.
So, in order to pay for the war, the British empire decided to raise
taxes. The British government felt it was only fair if some of the
burdens fell to American colonists.

But mostly the colonists were angry because they didn’t have any
say about the new taxes that Britain was imposing. Some colonies
had been setting their own taxes through their legislatures for 100
years.

So, the taxes themselves weren’t really the problem, it was their
lack of parliamentary representation.

The most annoying tax was the Stamp Act, which declared that all
printed material had to carry a stamp.

This was purely to gain revenue for Britain & it mostly affected
people who used a lot of paper.
• Protesters organized the
Stamp Act Congress, which
after a meeting, decided to
boycott British goods. And
this was the first major
coordinated action by the
colonies together & it might
be the first time that we can
speak of the colonies acting
in a united way, almost like,
say, a government.
• The boycott efforts helped
people become aware of
their liberties, & guess
what? Coordinated action
worked. And the British
Parliament repealed the
Stamp Act.
• But once you start talking about
the idea of representation,
everybody wants in.
• Meanwhile, Great Britain still
needed money, so parliament pass
new taxes in 1767, which created a
new board of customs.
• Many colonists again responded
with a boycott. On occasion,
protests did get out of hand as in
Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
• But overall boycotts & protests
were effective, & British merchants
pushed for the repeal of these acts,
leaving only a tax on tea.
The Boston Tea Party
• The colonists were just angry on the
principle that on December 16, 1773, they
dressed up as Indians & dumped tea into
Boston Harbor to cause the modern
equivalent of a 4000000 $ loss.
• But the tea party protesters
miscalculated, thinking that the British
would break down in response to their
protest. Instead, the British responded by
passing a series of acts that colonists came
to call the “Intolerable Acts”.
• The colonial response to these acts was
really the start of the American
Revolution.
• First Massachusetts passed a set of
resolutions calling for colonists to:
• Disobey the Intolerable Acts.
• Stop paying taxes.
• Prepare for the War.

The First Continental Congress

• In 1774, a group of delegates from
12 of the 13 colonies, met in
Philadelphia to coordinate the
resistance of the “Intolerable Acts”, &
this was the first continental congress,
which in setting up the continental
association to police the boycott. The
1st continental congress was the 1st
government of America.
• The war between colonists & Britain
began in 1775, when fighting broke out
between the British soldiers &
Massachusetts’s militiamen at Concord
& Lexington.
 By 1776, American colonists were divided into 3
Loyalists wanted to groups Neutrals were
remain British colonies undecided about
which side to
choose

Patriots supported separation

from Britain (independence)
Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)

Committee to draft the

Declaration: Thomas Jefferson,
Ben Franklin, John Adams, Robert
Livingston, & Roger Sherman
 • All men are created equal.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal.

• Men are given by God certain unalienable rights.

Main Points of “They are endowed, by their Creator, with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are Life, liberty and the
the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Declaration of • We have the natural right by God to declare our
independence from England.
Independence “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the
Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…
 General Cornwallis surrendered
to Washington in 1781, ending
the American Revolution

Cornwallis’ surrender was the

“day the world turned upside down”
 • Foreign Aid – French/German/Spanish
gave money/troops/naval assistance
Why the (ships)
Americans • Better Leadership
Won • Knowledge of the land
• Motivation – our lives and our
property
• American Revolution is a 360-degree turn,
which leaves you back where you started. I
mean, did the American revolution really was
revolutionary?
• It’s worth remembering that the British
empire abolished slavery in all its territory by
1843 & without a civil war.
• Women didn’t get much out of the revolution
(they did not vote in elections).
• The revolution didn’t end slavery, it didn’t
much change the role of women, and it didn’t
displace the elite land-owning white guy
leadership of America.
So, what was the Revolutionary? The Ideas
• The idea is that no one American is inherently
better than other. Prior to the revolution, &
certainly, in Europe, there were definitely classes
of superior people, usually determined by birth.

• But all that talk of freedom &

inalienable rights introduced the
idea that birth wasn’t destiny, and
all people should be treated with
respect. And this idea change not
just America but all the world.
Historical
Significance
• The American Colonies finally
declared their independence
from England
• It was the first step in the
creation of a new nation.
Thanks for watching

Farouk Aly
Farouk.aly@alexu.edu.eg