H3a - Causes of the American Revolution

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H3a-causes of the am.rev.mp4

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was a war between the French and Indians vs England. This was was fought over the Ohio Valley Territory. It was also known worldwide as the 7 years war.

This war had little impact on Georgia, but, it expanded Georgia's borders to the St. Mary’s River to the South, the Mississippi River to the West, and land around Augusta to the North.

The war ended when the Treaty of Paris 1763 was signed. That treaty did have an impact on Georgia. That treaty gave La Florida back to the Spanish. So again, we had the Spanish threat.

Proclamation of 1763

The Proclamation of 1763 was in response to the French and Indian War. War is expensive. So England wanted to avoid another war. In order to do so, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763.

The Proclamation of 1763 forbid colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Proclamation had three main goals:

First, to make peace with the American Indians because they were in debt from the French and Indian war.
Second, King George III hoped for peace to start a trade relationship.
Third, the British could better defend and maintain colonies by building forts along the Proclamation line.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act was put in place to pay for the debt of the French and Indian War.

The Act put a tax on items used by the colonist, such as newspapers and legal documents. Colonists were upset at this act. Some Colonists joined the Sons of Liberty, a group formed in response to the Stamp Act. In Georgia, the Liberty Boys were formed, they were an affiliated group of the Sons of Liberty.

Georgia's response to the Stamp Act was different that the other colonies. Georgia was still very loyal to the King. They had a strong royal governor in Sir James Wright. Even a few stamps were sold in Georgia.

Intolerable Acts

After the Stamp Act, the colonist were angry. What really set off the colonist was The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. After those event the Parliament wanted to show the colonist who was boss. They imposed the Intolerable acts. It was a way to punish the colonist.

The 1st act is the Boston Port Act, which closed the Port of Boston and hurt trade.

The next act is the Massachusetts Government act. This took away the government from the colony, which meant they couldn’t make laws or even get together to stand up against England. Only one meeting was allowed per year.

The Quebec Act was the next one. The big thing on this was the giving up of more land. They expanded the British Canadian territory into the Ohio Valley.

The Administration of Justice act was the next Intolerable Act. Pretty much it just moved British officials trials to Britain versus having them here in the colonies. The English in Britain would go much easier on the criminals.

The last act quartering act. Of the 5 acts, this one affected Georgia the most. The quartering act required the colonist to provide housing for the British soldiers. So if a British soldier knocked on your door, you had to let them in. This upset ALL colonists.

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