Act or Action

Purpose

Provisions of Act

Colonial Reaction

British Reaction

Proclamation Line of 1763

British hoped to pacify Indians in West

Pacification would reduce need for troops to battle Indians on frontier

Forbade settlement west of Appalachian Mountains

Everyone in the western region must return to the East

Anger; colonists had fought French and Indian War to gain access to western region

Colonists continued to settle in the area

British repealed law with Treaty of Fort Stanwix 1768

Moved line of permitted settlement farther to west

Sugar Act 1764

Act passed to raise money for colonial defense

Duty on foreign molasses had been reduced but now would be enforced

Anger

Smuggling

Attempted to enforce tax

Stamp Act 1765

Passed to raise money

Same tax existed in Great Britain

Taxed dice, playing cards, newspapers, marriage licenses

Total of 50 items taxed

Convened Stamp Act Congress

Petitioned the King

Urban riots

Boycotted goods

Viewed as an internal tax

Repealed law

Little money raised

Declaratory Act 1766

When Stamp Act repealed, British needed to save face

England could pass any laws for the colonies

Ignored it

British attempt to assert their dwindling authority

Townshend Act 1767

Passed to raise money and regulate trade

External tax

Taxed imports:  glass, paint, lead, paper, tea

Boycott of British goods

Urban riots

Repealed taxes on everything but tea in 1770

Boston Massacre 1770

British troops in city to enforce laws

N.A.

Confronted soldiers

Opened fire on mob, five colonists killed

Boston Tea Party 1773

Colonists wanted to protest tea tax

Tax on tea from 1770 remained

Sons of Liberty threw 342 cases of tea into Boston Harbor

Intolerable or Coercive Acts passed

First Continental Congress 1774

Met to decide how to help Massachusetts resist Intolerable Acts

N.A.

Pled to King to repeal the Intolerable Acts

Boycotted taxed goods

Called another Congress in 1775

Put troops in cities

Decided to hold firm