Lead-up to the Revolution

British racked up a lot of debt, and they wanted colonists to pay some of it

Pontiac's Rebellion led to the British creation of a Proclamation Line.

The most important response to the early taxes was the Stamp Act Congress (1765) and the Virginia Resolutions on the Stamp Act.

Parliament repealed the Stamp Act (1765) but concurrently passed the Declaratory Act (1766). The Declaratory Act asserted Parliamentary authority to tax whatever, whenever, on whomever the Parliament wished.

Round 2. The Townsend Revenue Act (1767) was passed, followed by the Non-Importation agreements. The Townsend Acts taxed glass, paint, oil, lead, and tea. The Non-Importation Agreements originate in Boston and the colonists pledged to put economic pressure on the British merchant class be refusing to import taxed goods.

Round 3. Tea Act (1773), Boston Tea Party (1773), Intolerable Acts (e.g. Boston Port Act) (1774), First Continental Congress (1774).

The Tea Act was meant to support the East India company but by 1773 the colonists were in no mood for any tax. Thus, thinly disguised colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor as a boycott and "nonviolent" response to the Tea Act.

Subsequently, Parliament passed the "Intolerable Acts" including the Boston Port Act which kept Boston Harbor closed until all of the dumped tea was paid for.

These "Intolerable Acts", as their colonial name would imply, enraged the colonists. A meeting of all colonial representatives was called in Philadelphia in 1774. The First Continental Congress was generally conciliatory (e.g. Galloway Plan proposed). That is, there was no call for rebellion by First Continental Congress.

However, a boycott of British goods was called for and Committees of Observation and Correspondence were set up to inform the colonists of British actions and enforce the boycott.

When British troops attempted to seize colonial munitions, "Minutemen" at Lexington and Concord responded somewhat effectively "...where once the embattled farmer stood and fired the shot heard 'round the world."

Contemporaneously, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a straight forward set of arguments of why the colonists should rebel. "“Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

Although not all delegates to the Second Continental Congress wished to rebel (Olive Branch Petition), a formal Declaration of Independence was adopted in early July.