Key Events That Led Up To The American Revolution

872 Words4 Pages

There were many key events and people that led up to the American Revolution. Two of them being the The Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. These events are very important to history because these were the first of many events that helped with the establishment of independence from Britain. The colonist left their country and sailed across the oceans in hopes of starting a new life in a new world. However, the British government didn't give them that opportunity by controlling them. A turning point in history occurred on March 5, 1770. It was the first try of the colonists, to rebel against their government. A following event took place on December 16, 1773 when the colonists decided it was time to stand up once again to the injustices …show more content…

They were sending the message that they would not pay taxes on their tea. The British were furious with the actions of the colonists and needed to impose a punishment for their rebellion. This came in the form of the Intolerable Acts. These acts were an attempt by Parliament to gain complete control over the colonists. The culminations of these events led to the breakout of the Revolutionary War just short of two years after the Boston Tea Party. It was during America’s Revolutionary War that the Second Continental Congress met, wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence. Five years before the beginning of the American Revolution, five men were killed by British soldiers that had been stationed in Boston to discourage rebellion against the Townshend acts. The British and loyalists blamed the entire event on the people of Boston for harassing the soldiers. In their view, the soldiers had acted in self defense. American colonists, on the other hand, blamed the soldiers and used the event to show the dangerous consequences of having a standing …show more content…

The Boston Massacre began with a small argument about the Townshend Acts between British Private Hugh White and a few colonists outside the Custom House in Boston on King Street. The argument began to escalate as more colonists gathered and began to harass and throw sticks and snowballs at Private White. Soon there were over 50 colonists at the scene. The local British officer of the watch, Captain Thomas Preston, sent a number of soldiers over to the Custom House to maintain order. However, the sight of British soldiers armed with bayonets just aggravated the crowd further. They began to shout at the soldiers, daring them to fire. Captain Preston then arrived and tried to get the crowd to disperse. Unfortunately, an object thrown from the crowd struck one of the soldiers, Private Montgomery, and knocked him down. He fired into the crowd. After a few seconds of stunned silence, a number of other soldiers fired into the crowd as well. Three colonists died immediately and two more died later from

Open Document