American Revolution

• a revolution is when the people of a country try to overthrow the government
• causes for the american revolution: taxes (navigation act, stamp act, quartering act), taxation without representation, boston tea party, and boston massacre
• Navigation act: law that said that american colonies could only sell goods like tobacco and sugar to britain. Stamp act: a special tax where americans had to get all documents, newspapers signed in exchange for a fee. Quartering act: which imposed taxes to cover the cost of soldiers in the colonies
• Americans also began to question the idea of “divine rights of kings”, this was the belief that god sent queens/kings to rule over a country
• Boston massacr: in 1770, a group of 50 americans protested over taxes, they threw sticks and snowballs at a group of british soldiers. In response, the soldiers fired into the protestors, killing 5 and leading to a greater divide and anger between the british and americans
• Boston Tea Party: in 1773, americans dressed up as indians and boarded british ships full of tea and dumped the tea into the boston harbour in protest to high taxes on tea.
• No taxation without representation: americans didn’t want to pay tax without being represented in british government
• “The shot heard upon the world” refers to the battle of lexington and concord in 1775 that started the american war of independence
• George Washington was elected as commander in chief of the american army
• America became independent in 1776
• Long terms impacts: the deceleration of independence became the basis for equal rights for all people, george washington became the first president of the USA, the USA became an independent country, the french and irish were also inspired by the ideas of liberty and equality which led to them to rebel/revolt as well